Drillers Sweep Doubleheader from First Place Cards
May 22, 2024 - Texas League (TL)
Tulsa Drillers News Release
SPRINGFIELD, MO - The Tulsa Drillers continued their recent strong play with a doubleheader sweep Wednesday night over the first-place Springfield Cardinals. The Drillers won the opener at Hammons Field 7-1 and then held off the Cardinals in game two, posting a 5-3 victory.
The Drillers have now won five of their past six games. With the sweep, they moved to within 4.5 games of the division-leading Cardinals in the first-half standings of the Texas League's North Division.
In the first game, the Drillers broke a tie game with six runs over the final four innings.
Tulsa jumped in front as Alex Freeland opened the game with a leadoff single and then eventually came home on a ground out from Jose Ramos.
The only run against Tulsa starting pitcher Yon Castro came in the bottom of the second inning when three singles and a sacrifice fly tied the score at 1-1.
The Drillers took the lead for good with a three-run fourth inning. Ramos singled with one out and later scored on a passed ball. Brandon Lewis delivered a two-out, two-run single that gave Tulsa a 4-1 lead.
Lewis made it a four-run margin with his fifth homer of the season in the sixth.
A two-run single from Yeiner Fernandez in the seventh accounted for the final margin.
Castro was outstanding in his just his fourth Double-A start, picking up his first victory. He worked five innings, allowing just the one run on five hits with just one walk and two strikeouts.
Michael Hobbs closed out the opener with two scoreless innings.
The second game served as a makeup for a game that was rained out in Tulsa on May 5, so the Drillers served as the home team.
After never trailing in the opener, the Drillers fell behind early in the nightcap when the Cardinals scored two runs in the top of the first inning.
Pitcher Christian Romero was added to the Tulsa roster between games of the doubleheader and was making his first appearance with the Drillers as the game two starter. Romero was greeted with a two-run homer from Nathan Church in the top of the first inning to give Springfield its first lead of the night.
The Drillers answered and then some with a four runs in the bottom of the second. The rally began when Griffin Lockwood-Powell led off with his team-leading seventh home run of the season.
Brendon Davis followed with a double, and Ramos drew a one-out walk. After a passed ball, Fernandez brought both runners home with a two-out single. Three pitches later, Freeland doubled to score Fernandez and up the Drillers lead to 4-2.
After the two-run first inning, Romero settled in and kept the Cards scoreless over the next three frames. The right-hander departed with one out in the fifth and a runner at second base.
Ronan Kopp relieved and got a strikeout before Church produced a run-scoring single with two outs to trim the Tulsa lead to one run.
The Drillers got the run back in the bottom of the fifth when Taylor Young led off with a double and scored on a sacrifice fly, upping the lead to 5-3.
Kopp turned the game over to Jack Little with two outs in the sixth inning. Little retired all four batters he faced, two on strikeouts, to close out the seven-inning victory.
INSIDE THE GAME
*Fernandez singled in both games and has now reached base safely in 29 consecutive games. The 29 game on-base streak is the longest in Double A this season and the second longest in all of Minor League Baseball.
*Castro got the win in the first game, his first at the Double-A level. Romero fell two outs short of qualifying for his first Double-A win in the second game. Both Castro and Romero opened the year pitching for the Great Lakes Loons at the High-A level and now have only a combined six games of experience in Double A.
*The RBI in game one from Ramos was his first since April 25. Ramos had 17 RBI in his first 17 games of the season but had gone 18 games without one.
*Lockwood-Powell has homered in two of the past three games.
*Little is now four for five in save opportunities and his four saves lead the Drillers.
*Freeland, Ramos and Lewis all had two hits in the opener to lead the offense. In the second game, the Cards out-hit the Drillers 6-5 and no Tulsa batter had more than one hit.
UP NEXT:
The Drillers will continue their seven-game series in Springfield with game four on Thursday night. Starting time is set for 7:05 p.m. and the starting pitchers are scheduled to be:
TUL - RHP Jared Karros (0-0, 14.73 ERA)
SPR - RHP Ian Bedell (1-1, 5.70 ERA)
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