Drillers Rally to Take Series from Cardinals
May 26, 2024 - Texas League (TL)
Tulsa Drillers News Release
SPRINGFIELD, MO - The Tulsa Drillers completed a long week of baseball at Springfield's Hammons Field Sunday night with a 7-2 victory over the Springfield Cardinals in a game that was just seven innings in length. It was the rubber game of a seven-game series with the victory giving the Drillers a series win, four games to three.
When the week began, the Redbirds were in first place in the Texas League's North Division standings, a spot they had occupied since opening day of the season. After the hard-fought series, Arkansas has now moved into first place, Â1/2 game in front of the Cardinals and 5 games in front of Tulsa.
The Early in the week, the Drillers appeared headed to an easy series win after taking three of the first four games of the seven-game set, but had lost the previous two games. All three of their losses in the series were by just one run, and for a while, it looked as if Sunday's game might be another narrow loss.
Dalton Rushing got the Drillers off to a quick start in the finale with his sixth homer of the season in the top of the first inning.
Tulsa starting pitcher Kendall Williams held the 1-0 lead until the Cardinals scored twice in the fourth inning to go in front. A leadoff single from Mike Antico and a double from Nathan Church put runners at second and third with no outs. Antico came home on a ground out, and Church scored on a sacrifice fly to put Springfield ahead 2-1.
The lead held until a four-run sixth inning from the Drillers overturned the deficit and determined the outcome. Consecutive singles from Taylor Young and Rushing opened the inning and a throwing error put the runners at second and third.
A ground out from Jose Ramos scored Young to tie the game, and a sacrifice fly from Bubba Alleyne scored Rushing to put Tulsa back in front.
A two-run double by Brandon Lewis made it a 5-2 lead.
A leadoff home run from Alex Freeland in the top of the seventh added an insurance run for the Drillers.
INSIDE THE GAME
*Much of the series was plagued by rain and Sunday's finale was the second game of the series that was reduced to seven innings in length due to two-hour plus rain delays.
*Yeiner Fernandez singled in the sixth inning to extend his on-base streak to 32 straight games. It is the longest on-base streak in the Texas League this season and the second longest in Minor League Baseball.
*Williams collected the win on Sunday, improving his record to 2-5. It was his second strong start of the series. In two games against the Cards, Williams worked 10.2 innings and allowed five earned runs for a 4.22 ERA.
*Ronan Kopp allowed just one hit in two shutout, relief innings to close out the win and pick up his first-ever save at the Double-A level.
*The home run for Freeland was his fourth in just 18 games with the Drillers.
*In an oddity, Sunday's rain delay lasted longer than the actual game. The delay was 2 hours and 3 minutes, while the game took only 1 hour and 50 minutes to complete.
UP NEXT:
The Drillers now come home and will open a seven-game home stand with the Northwest Arkansas Naturals on Monday night. The game will have a special Memorial Day starting time of 6:30 p.m. and a large holiday Fireworks Show will follow the game at ONEOK Field.
The starting pitchers are scheduled to be:
NWA - RHP Eric Cerantola (1-2, 1.95 ERA)
TUL - RHP Yon Castro (1-1, 8.22 ERA)
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