TL1 Tulsa Drillers

Strong Pitching & Timely Hitting Leads Tulsa to 2-0 Victory

Published on June 25, 2016 under Texas League (TL1)
Tulsa Drillers News Release


The Tulsa Drillers came into Saturday's game looking to bounce back from their first loss of the second half. And bounce back they did as the club combined timely hitting with strong pitching and solid defense to defeat the Northwest Arkansas Naturals 2-0 at ONEOK Field.

With the win, the Drillers secured at least a series split with the Naturals as they improved their record to 4-1 to begin the second half.

Drillers starter Chase De Jong came into the game also looking to rebound from a rough outing his last time out. And he would not disappoint as the Drillers spotted him an early lead.

Outfielder Kyle Garlick got the scoring started in the second inning for Tulsa as he extended his personal hitting streak to 7 games with a double into the right-center field gap to begin the frame. Two batters later, Garlick came around to score on an RBI single off the bat of Shawn Zarraga to put the Drillers in front 1-0.

Tulsa extended its lead in the fourth inning as the club took advantage of a two-out walk from Naturals starter Ashton Goudeau. With no one on and two outs, Goudeau seemed to momentarily lose his focus as he walked the nine hold hitter, Jordan Tarsovich, on five pitches. He would pay for that mistake as Andrew Toles lined a double off the left field wall to score Tarsovich all the way from first. The two-out RBI brought the Tulsa lead to 2-0.

De Jong made sure that lead held. After surrendering four runs in his last start, De Jong did not let a single Northwest Arkansas hitter cross the plate Saturday although the Naturals did have several chances.

After wasting a leadoff double from Corey Toups in the first inning, the Naturals loaded the bases in the top half of the fourth thanks to back-to-back base hits from Ryan O'Hearn and Frank Schwindel to go with a walk to Cam Gallagher. But De Jong was able to escape the jam as he got Carlos Garcia to ground into a force out to end the frame.

Shortstop Jordan Tarsovich fires to first during Saturday night's ballgame. (Rich Crimi)

Northwest Arkansas threatened again in the sixth as Mauricio Ramos lined a one-out triple down the right field line. But again De Jong put out the fire by striking out O'Hearn and retiring Schwindel on a fly out to right.

Jordan Schafer replaced De Jong to start the seventh and promptly found himself in a jam as the Naturals loaded the bases on three straight base hits. Schafer kept his composure however, and induced a ground ball off the bat of speedster Terrance Gore.

Pouncing on the ball, Schafer quickly fired home to Zarraga to get the force out at the plate. Zarraga then alertly realized he would not be able to throw out Gore at first, and instead zipped a throw over to third to record a rare 1-2-5 double play.

Pitching coach Bill Simas then brought on right-handed reliever Joe Broussard who brought a close to the inning by getting Toups to ground out to short.

Following a scoreless bottom of the seventh inning, Broussard delivered a clean eighth inning before handing the ball off to Caleb Dirks for the final frame.

Dirks made things exciting as Northwest Arkansas' first two batters reached on a hit and a walk before both moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt from Garcia. Jack Lopez then hit a slow grounder back to the mound that Dirks slid to his knees to field before contorting his body to throw home where Zarraga tagged Schwindel out at the plate.

Logan Moon then pinch hit for Gore, representing the potential winning run. But Dirks sealed the game by striking Moon out on three pitches, securing his sixth save of the season.

De Jong earned his team-leading eighth win of the season while Goudeau saw his record fall to 2-5 despite allowing just the two runs over six innings of work.

Check out the Tulsa Drillers Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Texas League Stories from June 25, 2016


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central