Tulsa Wins on Walk-off Error
May 2, 2025 - Texas League (TL)
Tulsa Drillers News Release
Tulsa Drillers celebrate win
(Tulsa Drillers, Credit: Paige Grider)
Tulsa, OK -The Tulsa Drillers earned another walk-off victory against the Arkansas Travelers on Friday night. After Tulsa failed to hold two different leads, the game appeared to be going into extra innings tied at 4-4. With two outs in the ninth inning, Arkansas pitcher Juan Burgos failed to secure a catch while covering first base in what would have been the final out of the inning. The error allowed Yeiner Fernandez to score the winning run for the Drillers in a 5-4 victory at ONEOK Field.
The triumph was Tulsa's second walk-off win of the week. The Drillers now hold a 3-1 series lead over the first-place Travelers with two games remaining in the six-game set.
The game was scoreless over the first three innings, with neither team appearing as if they could break through. That changed in the fourth when Tulsa took advantage of an Arkansas mistake.
With one out in the fourth inning, Taylor Young and Sean McLain drew consecutive walks and advanced into scoring position on Chris Newell's deep fly out. Young and McLain scored on a pop up to shallow right field that was misplayed by Arkansas second baseman Blake Rambusch.
The Travelers responded in the seventh inning by using four singles to produce three runs and take a 3-2 lead.
The Drillers quickly answered in the bottom half of the seventh with two runs to regain the lead. With one out, Newell reached base on an infield single and advanced to second on a throwing error by third baseman Caleb Cali. Fernandez tied the game one batter later by scoring Newell with a double. Jose Ramos followed with an RBI single to put Tulsa back in front, 4-3.
Just like the inning before, the Drillers lead did not last long. In the top of the eighth, Arkansas used a catcher's interference and three walks to tie the game at 4-4.
Tulsa benefited from two more errors from Travs pitcher Burgos to help produce the winning run. The ninth inning began with a groundout before Fernandez reached base when Burgos was called for interference on a ground ball near the first base bag. Nick Senzel advanced Fernandez to second base with a single to left field, and Ramos moved him to third when he grounded out to Burgos. Keith was Tulsa's last hope to avoid extra innings, and he hit a ground ball to the first basemen, Hunter Fitz-Gerald, which should have been the third and final out of the inning, but Burgos failed to secure the throw as Fernandez scored the game-winning run.
INSIDE THE GAME
*Jacob Meador made his fifth start on Friday and allowed only one hit across four scoreless innings with three strikeouts. It was his first scoreless outing of the season. Since his first start of 2025 on April 6, Meador has lowered his ERA by 11.02 runs to 6.16.
*The two teams combined for six errors. Three of Tulsa's five runs scored were unearned.
*Jose Rodriguez was credited with the win, pitching a scoreless top of the ninth.
*Jose Ramos earned a hit to extend his on-base streak to 17 games.
*Newell's seventh-inning single extended his hitting streak to nine straight games.
*Jorge Benitez was charged with an unearned run, keeping his ERA at 0.00 for the season.
*The game had a paid attendance of 8,473, the largest crowd at ONEOK Field this season.
UP NEXT
Tulsa and Arkansas will continue their series on Saturday night at ONEOK Field. First pitch is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and the pitching matchup will be:
Arkansas - LHP Danny Wirchansky (1-1, 4.15 ERA)
Tulsa - RHP Peter Heubeck (0-1, 5.19 ERA)
Images from this story
 Tulsa Drillers celebrate win (Paige Grider) |
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