Ninth-Inning Homer Beats Drillers
April 22, 2023 - Texas League (TL)
Tulsa Drillers News Release
Tulsa Drillers' Jorbit Vivas at bat
(Tulsa Drillers, Credit: Tim Campbell)
Tulsa, OK- One night after celebrating a walk-off win in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Tulsa Drillers were on wrong end of a ninth-inning winner on Saturday at ONEOK Field. Wichita's Jake Rucker broke a tie game with one-out in the top of the ninth with his third home run of the season to give the Wind Surge a 4-3 win over the Drillers.
Rucker's homer ended Tulsa's three-game winning streak. It also gave Wichita its second win of the six-game series between the two teams. The Drillers hold a 3-2 advantage in the series, meaning they will need a win in Sunday's finale to claim their third straight series win to open the season.
Long before Rucker's homer, the early scoring in Saturday's game also came from solo home runs. For the third straight night, Tulsa's Jonny DeLuca led off the bottom of the first inning with a homer to give the Drillers an initial lead.
Wichita's Will Holland tied the score with a solo blast in the second before Tulsa went back in front 2-1 when Jorbit Vivas hit his second homer of the year in the bottom of the third.
The Wind Surge took its first lead with two unearned runs in the top of the sixth. Consecutive singles to open the inning, followed by a one-out walk, loaded the bases. After a strikeout, the Wind Surge tied the score when Tulsa third baseman Brandon Lewis failed to field Holland's sharp grounder. The second run came home when John Rooney struck out Brooks Lee, but the ball skipped to the backstop to allow Lee to reach base safely and DaShawn Keirsey Jr. to race home and give Wichita a 3-2 lead.
The Drillers responded thanks to another solo homer in the bottom half of the sixth. With one out, Jose Ramos belted his second home run of the season to tie the score.
Both teams missed chances to break the tie in the eighth inning. In the top of the eighth, Wichita had a runner at second with one out when Holland lined a single into centerfield. It initially appeared that Armani Smith would score on the hit before stopping halfway to home. Lee followed with a ground ball to second that Vivas threw home to catch Smith in a rundown. Smith was tagged out trying to race back to third, and Lewis then threw to second where Lee was tagged out to end the inning.
In the bottom of the eighth, a walk and a single put runners at first and third for the Drillers with no outs, but a pair of strikeouts and a ground out left the runners stranded, setting up Rucker's game-deciding homer in the ninth.
HIGHLIGHTS AND HAPPENINGS:
*Vivas finished 2-4 to extend his hitting streak to 14 straight games. In addition to his home run, he hit his Texas League leading tenth double of the season.
*Wichita reliever Kody Funderburk had his second strong outing of the series to get the victory. Funderburk allowed just one hit in 2.1 innings, getting strikeouts on five of the seven outs he recorded. The lefthander saved Wichita's game one win in the series.
*The Drillers were 0-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine base runners.
*Tulsa starting pitcher Emmet Sheehan worked the first four innings and was charged with one run on three hits. He struck out eight batters and now has 29 strikeouts in just 15.2 innings this season.
*Rucker's homer was the first run given up this season by reliever Tanner Dodson. It also gave him his first loss, dropping his record to 2-1.
*With the loss, the Drillers record in the 2023 Coors Light Propeller Series fell to 3-2.
UP NEXT:
The two teams will conclude their six-game series with an afternoon game on Sunday at ONEOK Field. First pitch for the finale is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. and the starting pitchers are slated to be:
Wichita - RHP Carlos Luna (0-0, 4.26 ERA)
Tulsa - RHP Landon Knack (0-0, 0.69 ERA)
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Images from this story
 Tulsa Drillers' Jorbit Vivas at bat (Tim Campbell) |
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