TL1 Tulsa Drillers

Holcomb's 12th Inning Slam Gives Drillers Win

Published on August 15, 2009 under Texas League (TL1)
Tulsa Drillers News Release


For the second night in a row, the Tulsa Drillers and Frisco RoughRiders needed extra innings to decide a winner. In Thursday's 8-6 loss, Frisco won on a two-run homer in the top of the 10th inning, but it was the Drillers who won in dramatic fashion Friday night at Drillers Stadium. A walk off grand slam by Darin Holcomb in the bottom of the 12th inning gave the Drillers a dramatic 8-4 win.

Dayton Buller started the 12th inning against Frisco reliever Thomas Diamond by reaching on an error by first baseman Chad Tracy. He moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Daniel Carte. Daniel Mayora then walked, before Rex Rundgren was hit in the batting helmet by a pitch to load the bases for Holcomb. The Drillers third baseman belted a 0-1 fastball into the left-center field netting for his first grand slam of the season and the third walk-off homer for the Drillers this season.

On April 18, Daniel Mayora defeated Corpus Christi with a ninth-inning homer, and on April 30, Johnny Bowden completed an 8-run comeback with a three-run homer against Arkansas.

The grand slam rewarded a strong performance from the Tulsa bullpen. A group of four relievers combined to keep the Riders scoreless over the final 6.1 innings. It was a sharp contrast to Thursday night's performance when the bullpen surrendered a 6-1 eighth- inning lead.

The RoughRiders threatened to take the lead in the tenth inning, loading the bases with two outs, but they could not capitalize Drillers reliever Matt Reynolds struck out John Whittleman on a called third strike to end the inning.

In the 12th they had a runner in scoring position with no outs, but Tommy Baumgardner was able to work out of the jam. The Riders stranded 15 runners on base in the game, while Tulsa left only 4.

The Drillers scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning. Michael Paulk singled before Ryan Harvey drove his 20th home run of the year into the left field netting. Harvey has now homered in three straight games, and he has four in his last five games.

Frisco responded in the top of the fifth when Dustin Majewski's broken-bat double into the right field corner plated Craig Gentry.

A solo home run by Brad Corley in the fifth inning extended the Drillers lead to 3-1.

The Riders rallied with a three-run sixth inning to take 4-3 lead. Adam Fox drew a leadoff walk, moved to third on a single by Chris Gradoville, and scored on a single by Steve Murphy. Guilder Rodriguez then singled on a grounder over the head of first baseman Jeff Kindel that was fielded by second baseman Danny Sandoval in shallow right field. Gradoville hustled to score all the way from second on the play, sliding in safely at home to tie the game.

The Drillers were able to keep the game tied when Marcus Lemon hit a grounder to Kindel. The first baseman threw home just in time to retire Murphy for the second out of the inning. They could not escape the threat though, as Gentry singled home Rodriguez with the go-ahead run.

Shane Lindsay relieved starter Chaz Roe and was able to get the third out of the inning.

Tulsa tied the game at 4-4 with a run in the bottom of the eighth inning. Mayora drew a lead off walk, and Rundgren singled before both runners were advanced a base on Holcomb's sacrifice bunt. Mayora later scored on a grounder off the bat of Paulk.

Holcomb's heroics made a winner of Baumgardner (2-2). The lefthander worked two scoreless innings.

Diamond (0-2) took the loss, giving up four runs on one hit in 2/3 innings of work.

The Drillers will now begin a three game series with the RockHounds Saturday night at 7:05 PM at Drillers Stadium. Ching-Lung Lo (1-1, 3.86 ERA at Modesto) will make his season debut with the Drillers against Midland's Travis Banwart (8-5, 4.91 ERA). Lo has appeared in 45 games and complied a 16-16 record since he first appeared for the Drillers in 2007.

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Texas League Stories from August 15, 2009


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