Tulsa Drops Finale in San Antonio
Published on April 19, 2015 under Texas League (TL1)
Tulsa Drillers News Release
The Tulsa Drillers season high three-game winning streak came to a frustrating end Saturday night in San Antonio. The Drillers fell to the Missions 5-2, missing a chance to record their first series sweep of the season.
Offensively, Tulsa struck out 15 times in the loss and stranded 11 base runners. Defensively, a costly error in the second inning provided San Antonio with an early cushion, courtesy of three unearned runs.
The Missions jumped out to an early lead on a run-scoring hit from Diego Goris in the bottom of the first inning.
In the second, Tulsa starter Jeremy Kehrt seemed on his way to an easy inning when he retired the first two batters on strikes, but his pitching counterpart, Elliott Morris, singled to extend the inning. Travis Jankowski and Trea Turner followed with base hits to load the bases with two outs. Casey McElroy then lofted a fly ball to left field that looked to be the final out of the inning, but leftfielder Jeremy Hazelbaker had the ball deflect out of his glove for an error as all three base runners raced home to up the Missions lead to 4-0.
Goris singled home another run in the fifth to extend the margin to five runs.
The Drillers failed to capitalize on four walks that Morris issued in 5.1 innings of work, before relievers Jay Jackson and Michael Dimock combined on 2.2 scoreless innings keep the shutout in place.
Tulsa did make things interesting in the top of the ninth. Luis Mateo greeted Brandon Alger with a lined double off the wall in left field, and Travis Witherspoon drew a walk. After a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third, newcomer Paul Hoenecke struck out. Hazlebaker broke up the shutout with an infield groundout as Mateo came home to make it 5-1.
Brandon Dixon plated Witherspoon with a base hit, and Corey Seager produced his second double of the game to put runners and second and third. Brian Burgamy came to the plate representing the potential tying run, but his bid for a hit was tracked down by right fielder Hunter Renfroe for the final out of the game.
Seager finished 2-4 in the game and actually saw his season average drop to .514. Hazlebaker also picked up a pair of hits.
Kehrt was charged with the loss, dropping his record to 0-2.
The Tulsa bullpen trio of Blake Smith, Mike Thomas and Juan Gonzalez combined to surrender only one hit in four scoreless relief innings.
The Drillers will now travel deeper into Texas to begin a three-game series in Corpus Christi Sunday afternoon. Matt Shelton (0-0, 6.75 ERA) will pitch the opener for Tulsa against Lance McCullers (1-0, 0.00 ERA) of the Hooks. Starting time at Whataburger Field is slated for 2:05PM.
Texas League Stories from April 19, 2015
- Tulsa Sixth Topples Corpus Christi - Corpus Christi Hooks
- Drillers Rally Past Hooks in Opener - Tulsa Drillers
- Cardinals Crush Missions, 9-2 - Springfield Cardinals
- Naturals Fall in Series Opener against Frisco - Northwest Arkansas Naturals
- Homers Sink Missions in Series-Opening Loss To - San Antonio Missions
- Riders Rock Sulbaran, Best Naturals - Frisco RoughRiders
- Little Man Stands Tall - Corpus Christi Hooks
- Morris Helps Missions Avoid Sweep - San Antonio Missions
- Drillers Roll Past Missions to Clinch Series - San Antonio Missions
- A Forty-Three Percent Chance of Whiffs - Midland RockHounds
- Springfield Averts Sweep - Corpus Christi Hooks
- Morris helps Missions avoid sweep - San Antonio Missions
- Tulsa Drops Finale in San Antonio - Tulsa Drillers
- Travs Avoid Sweep with Late Power Surge - Frisco RoughRiders
- Cardinals Come Back in Corpus Christi for 2-1 Win - Springfield Cardinals
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