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TL1 Tulsa Drillers

Drillers win, stay alive

September 7, 2006 - Texas League (TL1)
Tulsa Drillers News Release


For the Tulsa Drillers, a streak ended Thursday night but their season did not. Facing elimination from the Texas League playoffs and the end of their season, the Drillers defeated the Wichita Wranglers 6-0 at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. The win ended Tulsa's 10-game losing streak to the Wranglers and extended the North Division Playoff Series for at least one more day. Wichita now holds a 2 games to 1 lead in the best-of-five series.

After scoring only eight runs in their previous seven losses to the Wranglers, the Drillers' offense came to life Thursday with four-run first inning runs. Starting pitcher Steven Register took advantage of the early lead and produced one of his best outings of the season, throwing five shutout innings.

The Drillers big first inning against Wichita starter Junior Herndon began with a bunt base hit on the game's first pitch by leadoff hitter Jonathan Herrara, one of three bunt hits in the game for the Tulsa shortstop. With Herrera at first, Joe Gaetti bounced into a force out, but Joe Koshansky followed with a base hit that put runners at first and third. Tino Sanchez put Tulsa in front with a sacrifice fly that plated Gaetti. The Drillers then got a base hit from Christian Colonel and three straight run-scoring singles from Ian Stewart, Matt Miller and Alvin Colina to take a 4-0 lead.

Stewart increased the margin to 5-0 with a two-out, solo home run in the third inning.

Meanwhile, Register was keeping the Wranglers off the scoreboard. He allowed a single in each of the first four innings before running into control problems in the fifth. Register walked the first two hitters of the inning, but battled back to strike out Chris Lubanski and Alex Gordon. The right-hander escaped the inning when Dee Brown flied out for the final out.

Judd Songster took over for Register and pitched a scoreless sixth inning before the Drillers added another run in the top of the seventh. Three straight singles by Doug Bernier, Herrera and Gaetti loaded the bases, ending Herndon's outing. Juan Cedeno relieved and retired Koshansky on strikes, but Sanchez brought Bernier home with an RBI-groundout.

After Songster worked a scoreless seventh, Jentry Beckstead entered the game in the eighth inning and was greeted with consecutive singles by Brown and Billy Butler. One of the game's key plays then occurred as Mitch Maier flied out to right field, but it turned into a double play as Brown was gunned down by right fielder Colonel when he tried to advance to third. Following the double play, Donnie Murphy singled, but Angel Sanchez struck out to end the inning.

Beckstead got the first out in the bottom of the ninth before allowing a single and a walk. Left-hander Josh Newman was summoned from the Tulsa bullpen, and he retired Gordon on a foul popup and Brown on a strikeout to end the game.

After getting only a combined 13 hits in the first two games, the Drillers hit safely 14 times Thursday. Every Drillers starter had at least one hit, with Herrera and Bernier getting three hits each.

The Wranglers got nine hits and had base runners in every inning, but they could not score.

Register collected the win, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out five in his five innings of work.

The two teams will now play game four on Friday night in Wichita. The game will have an interesting pitching match-up with veteran Enmanuel Ulloa (7-6, 3.91 ERA) taking the mound for Tulsa against Luke Hochevar. Ulloa is a veteran that has pitched in Triple A, while Hochevar will be making his Double A debut. He was the first player selected in this June's amateur draft. He was 0-1 with a 1.17 ERA in four games this season with Class A Burlington.

First pitch on Friday will be at 7:05PM.

NOTES: Billy Butler played in his first game with the Wranglers since August 15. The outfielder has been playing for the United States in an Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Cuba. . . . .If the series reaches game five, the Drillers have named Jon Asahina their likely starter. The Wranglers will counter with Billy Buckner. . . .The win was the first-ever post-season victory for the Drillers as a Colorado Rockies affiliate. They had lost 8 straight playoff games since joining the Rockies organization. Overall, the win ended a 9-game post-season losing streak for Tulsa, dating back to the 2002 Texas League Championship Series. . . .The Corpus Christi Hooks clinched the South Division Series Thursday with a 7-3 victory in Midland. The Hooks swept the series in three games and will now meet the Tulsa-Wichita winner in the Championship Series.

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Texas League Stories from September 7, 2006


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