Travs Hand Drillers Third Straight Loss
North Little Rock, AR – The Arkansas Travelers have not been friendly to Tulsa Drillers starting pitcher Patrick Copen this season. Copen has entered both his starts against the Travelers with scoreless streaks of 12.1 innings, and in both games, Arkansas broke the streaks. On Thursday, the Travs hit Copen
North Little Rock, AR – The Arkansas Travelers have not been friendly to Tulsa Drillers starting pitcher Patrick Copen this season. Copen has entered both his starts against the Travelers with scoreless streaks of 12.1 innings, and in both games, Arkansas broke the streaks. On Thursday, the Travs hit Copen for nine runs to give the Drillers a 9-4 loss at Dickey-Stephens Park.
The loss was the third straight for Tulsa, who now holds just a one-game lead over Arkansas for first place in the Texas League’s North Division.
The troubles for Tulsa began in the first two innings on Thursday. Caleb Cali quickly broke Copen’s scoreless streak with a solo home run in the first inning.
The Travs scored two more runs in the second when a one-out walk was followed by J.T. Arruda’s RBI double. Michael Arroyo was next with a single that gave Arkansas a 3-0 lead.
The scoring continued for the Travelers in the fourth, when a walk and two singles plated two more runs.
One inning later, Arkansas reached its biggest lead of the night at 9-0, scoring four more runs on Nick Raposo’s RBI single and Sammy Siani’s three-run homer.
Tulsa’s scoreless stretch ended in the sixth when Elijah Hainline began the inning with a solo home run. Three hitters later, the Drillers had runners at second and third, and Josue De Paula produced a second run with a single to center.
The Drillers scored the final runs of the night in the seventh. Zyhir Hope began the inning by drawing a walk, and Joe Vetrano hit a 438-foot home run to make the score 9-4.
GAME NOTES
*The home runs allowed by Copen have been a rare occurrence in his career. The homers by Cali and Siani were only the sixth and seventh homers allowed by Copen in four professional seasons and just his third at the Double-A level.
*Despite his struggles, Copen matched his season high in strikeouts with nine.
*Following Copen’s departure, relievers Kelvin Ramirez, Lucas Wepf, Christian Ruebeck and Maddux Bruns combined to keep Arkansas scoreless over the final 3.1 innings.
*Tulsa pitching combined to set a new season high with 15 strikeouts.
*The Drillers were unable to take advantage of eight walks issued by Arkansas pitchers as only one walk came around to score.
*Hainline’s homer was his fifth and Vetrano’s was his fourth.
*Kendall George, De Paula, Kyle Nevin and Jake Gelof all earned two hits in the game as Tulsa out-hit the Travs 12-9.
UP NEXT
The two teams will play a doubleheader on Friday evening at Dickey-Stephens Park. It will mark the Drillers third doubleheader this season. Game one is scheduled for a 5:05 p.m. first pitch, and game two will begin approximately 30 following the conclusion of the first. The starting pitchers for the twin-bill are expected to be:
Game 1
TUL – LHP Wyatt Crowell (2-2, 5.74 ERA)
ARK – LHP Kade Anderson (2-0, 0.37 ERA)
Game 2
TUL- RHP Payton Martin (0-2, 9.00 ERA)
ARK- LHP Nico Tellache (1-1, 2.74 ERA)