Drillers Blanked Before Sellout Crowd
April 12, 2024 - Texas League (TL)
Tulsa Drillers News Release
Tulsa Drillers' Yeiner Fernandez in action
(Tulsa Drillers, Credit: Rich Crimi)
TULSA, OK - The Arkansas Travelers continued to be a problem for the Tulsa Drillers on Friday night. The Travelers scored two first-inning runs and never trailed in blanking the Drillers 4-0 before a sellout crowd ONEOK Field.
The Drillers have now lost three of the first four games of a six-game series with the Travelers. The defeat dropped Tulsa's season record to 4-3.
The paid attendance was 8,683, the largest crowd at ONEOK Field in nearly eight years for a Drillers game. The last time a larger crowd attended a Drillers home game was April 14, 2016 when 8,762 fans were on hand for that season's home opener, the largest Drillers crowd ever at ONEOK Field.
It was also the first game of the series that the Drillers never held a lead. Tulsa was blanked on only five hits, a season low. It also marked the first time this season that the Drillers have been shut out.
Following their two-run first inning, the Travelers added a third run on a wild pitch in the top of the fourth. They capped their scoring on an RBI double from Tyler Locklear in the seventh.
Tulsa starting pitcher Ben Casparius picked up the loss. He was charged with three runs, two earned, on seven hits in four innings.
INSIDE THE GAME
*Dalton Rushing singled in the fifth inning to extend his hitting streak to seven straight games. Rushing has hit safely in every game this season.
*The Drillers missed an opportunity to get on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth when Lolo Sanchez opened the inning with a leadoff triple. Sanchez remained at third on a fly out, then tried to score when a pitch skipped away from the catcher, but he was thrown out at the plate. The next three batters reached base on a single and a pair of walks, but the Drillers remained scoreless when Griffin Lockwood-Powell was retied on a strikeout.
*Sanchez totaled two hits in the game to extend his hitting streak to six games, but he left the game with an apparent injury after singling in the sixth inning.
*Drillers reliever Steven Dreyer held the Travelers scoreless in the eighth and ninth innings, getting strikeouts on four of the six outs he recorded. The lefthander has not allowed a run in six innings this season and has nine strikeouts.
UP NEXT:
The Drillers and Travelers will continue their six-game series on Saturday night at ONEOK Field. Starting time is set for 7:00 p.m. and the starting pitchers are scheduled to be:
ARK - LHP Danny Wirchansky (0-1, 11.25 ERA)
TUL - RHP Orlando Ortiz-Mayr (0-0, 15.75 ERA)
Images from this story
 Tulsa Drillers' Yeiner Fernandez in action (Rich Crimi) |
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