Drillers Need 13 Innings to Top Travs in Final Home Stand Opener
Published on September 10, 2025 under Texas League (TL)
Tulsa Drillers News Release
Tulsa Drillers celebrate a 13-inning win
(Tulsa Drillers, Credit: Tim Campbell)
Tulsa, OK - The Tulsa Drillers began a pivotal six-game series against the Arkansas Travelers on Tuesday night at ONEOK Field as they continued to pursue the final playoff position from the Texas League's North Division. The series opener took 13 innings to decide a winner, and Tulsa finished on top with Sean McLain providing the game-deciding hit when he drove in the placed runner with a drive off the base of the left field wall, giving the Drillers a dramatic 4-3 win.
The extra-inning win proved crucial as Wichita also earned a victory on Tuesday, topping Corpus Christi. With both teams winning, the Drillers still hold a 2.0 game lead over the Wind Surge and their magic number dropped to four with just five games remaining in the regular season.
Arkansas produced the first run of the night in the third inning when designated hitter Josh Hood hit a solo home run into the COUNTRY Financial Terrace.
It was the only run that Tulsa starting pitcher Roque Gutierrez allowed before his night ended with two outs in the top of the fifth inning. The Mexico native allowed one run on six hits and one walk. Guitierrez also struck out three batters.
Opposing starter Jurrangelo Cijntje held the Drillers silent across six innings in a unique way. The ambidextrous pitcher shut out Tulsa and struck out seven hitters, allowing just two hits and two walks.
Kelvin Ramirez was the first reliever out of the bullpen and recorded the next four outs. Jeisson Cabrera followed and also worked an inning and a third, with three of the four outs coming by way of strikeout.
A huge sequence took place at the top of the eighth inning as Brandon Neeck took over for Cabrera with two runners on base. His outing began with a four-pitch, one-out walk to load the bases, but Neeck quickly recovered by striking out Arkansas' number one and two hitters in the lineup to escape the jam.
Neeck's performance proved huge for Tulsa as James Tibbs III broke the Drillers shutout by tying the game with a solo home run on the first pitch he saw in the eighth inning.
Reliever Christian Suarez entered in the top of the ninth and was tasked with keeping the game tied. Suarez quickly gained two outs on consecutive groundouts but issued a walk to Sundstrom to keep the Travelers inning alive. With Sundstrom at first base, Suarez attempted three pickoffs at first and did not record an out on the third attempt to advance Sundstrom to second base on the disengagement violation. Two wild pitches eventually allowed Sundstrom to come around and score, giving Arkansas a 2-1 lead.
Tulsa also used a wild pitch to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth. Taylor Young began the inning with a single and advanced to third base on a throwing error on Nick Davila's pickoff attempt. Following a groundout and a strikeout, Young tied the game at 2-2 on a wild pitch. A groundout ended the inning and sent the game to extra innings.
In the top of the tenth with a placed runner at second, Bill Knight led off with a single to right and stole second base to put runners at second and third with no outs. Carson Hobbs escaped the inning by striking out the next two hitters and inducing a pop out to give Tulsa a chance to win.
A strikeout began the Drillers half of the tenth. Chris Newell followed with a walk, and Yeiner Fernandez singled to load the bases. Tulsa was unable to score as Nelson Quiroz grounded into a double play to extend the game.
Hobbs once again kept the Travs from scoring by recording a pop out, a groundout and a strikeout to give the Drillers another chance to win in the bottom of the 11th, but they were again unable to score the placed runner.
In the top of the 12th, two walks began the inning to load the bases. The Travs finally broke the 2-2 tie when Knight singled to left field on a shallow fly ball that dropped in front of Kole Myers, allowing Caleb Cali to score. Jorge Benitez worked out of the inning using a 3-2 double play and a pop out.
The Drillers half of the 12th began with two strikeouts, but Chris Newell kept Tulsa alive as his singled with two outs to score Zach Ehrhard from second base. Tulsa could not score again so the game entered the 13th inning.
Kelvin Bautista entered as the ninth pitcher for the Drillers and retired all three batters he faced to keep the score tied at 3-3.
Kole Myers was hit by a pitch to open the bottom of the 13 th, before Taylor Young grounded into a force out to put runners at the corners. It set up the winner from McLain who belted a drive to deep left field that struck the bottom of the walk for a walk-off single as placed runners Griffin Lockwood-Powell jogged home.
INSIDE THE GAME
*The game was officially the longest game by time played by Tulsa this season at four hours exactly, beating the previous longest game by one minute.
*The Drillers played their 22nd extra innings game this season, which is the most extra-inning games played in a season by any Tulsa professional baseball team. The previous record was 18, set by the Tulsa Oilers in the 1942 Texas League season.
*Ehrhard stole two bases in the game to bring his total to 13 since he joined the Drillers on July 31.
*Tibbs III's home run was his sixth with the Drillers. He has now homered in three straight games.
*The Travelers stranded 22 runners on base and finished 2-22 with runners in scoring position. The 22 runners stranded were the most by an opponent in Tulsa professional baseball history. Twenty was the previous record set by Shreveport in a 17-inning game during the 2001 season.
*Tulsa made a series of roster moves before the game. Top prospects in the Dodgers organization, Josue De Paula and Zyhir Hope, were added to the Drillers roster from Great Lakes, along with pitcher Cam Day. To make room, Kyle Nevin was placed on the Injured List, and Jacob Meador and John Rhodes were placed on the Development List.
*In his Double-A debut, De Paula finished 0-5 with a walk. Hope also made his debut in the bottom of the 11th when he pinch ran for Quiroz.
UP NEXT
It will be a quick turnaround as Tulsa and Arkansas will continue their six-game series on Wednesday afternoon with first pitch set for 12:05 p.m. at ONEOK Field. The starting pitchers are expected to be:
Arkansas - RHP Michael Morales (3-7, 4.66 ERA)
Tulsa - LHP Jackson Ferris (10-6, 3.94 ERA)
Images from this story
 Tulsa Drillers celebrate a 13-inning win (Tim Campbell) |
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