TL Tulsa Drillers

TulsaSound Suffers Second Straight Loss

Published on June 24, 2023 under Texas League (TL)
Tulsa Drillers News Release


Tulsa Drillers' Nick Nastrini in action
Tulsa Drillers' Nick Nastrini in action
(Tulsa Drillers, Credit: Rich Crimi)

TULSA, OK- Twenty-four hours after being eliminated from the first-half, division title race, the TulsaSound, a.k.a Drillers, struggled to generate much offense in another meeting with Northwest Arkansas. Tulsa mustered just one run in 11 innings and the result was a 2-1 extra-innings loss to the Naturals Saturday night at ONEOK Field.

The Naturals have won four of the first five games in the series. It will mark the second consecutive series loss at ONEOK Field for the Drillers after they began the season by winning their first five home series.

Tulsa and Northwest Arkansas were in a scoreless battle for much of the night on Saturday, and it took a pair of errors for both teams to finally get on the scoreboard in the eighth inning.

With two outs and the bases empty in the top half of the eighth, Tulsa third baseman Jorbit Vivas let Dillan Shrum's grounder skip under his glove. Shrum raced to second on the miscue and then scored when former major leaguer Jack Reinheimer dropped a soft, Texas League single into shallow right field.

In the bottom of the eighth, Austin Gauthier was on first base with two outs after reaching on a fielder's choice grounder. Gauthier swiped second base and advanced to third when catcher Luca Tresh's throw sailed into centerfield. The 90-foot advancement on the error proved to be crucial as it allowed Gauthier to score when Eddys Leonard beat out an infield single, tying the game at 1-1.

The scored remain unchanged until the eleventh inning. After both teams failed to score in the tenth, the Naturals moved the placed runner to third base with a successful sacrifice bunt in the top of the eleventh. The strategy proved successful when Parker Bates followed with a sacrifice fly.

Wilson's fly proved to be the winner. In Tulsa's half of the eleventh, a ground out moved placed runner Imanol Vargas to third with one out, but he would be stranded there. After Jose Ramos took a called third strike, Yusniel Diaz gave the ONEOK Field crowd hope with a deep fly ball to left, but Naturals left fielder Parker Bates caught the drive just a few feet in front of the left-center field fence to end the game.

Tulsa starting pitcher Nick Nastrini worked five scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and three walks while striking out eight. It matched his longest outing of the year and marked the second time this season that he has delivered five shutout innings in a start.

Northwest Arkansas starter Drew Parrish allowed just two hits and two walks in his six-inning stint, striking out seven Tulsa batters.

HIGHLIGHTS AND HAPPENINGS:

*Tulsa now has a 6-3 record in extra-inning games this season.

*In the first five games of the series, the Drillers are hitting just .189, and the Naturals just .190.

*In Saturday's game, Tulsa stranded eight runners and was 1-8 with runners in scoring position, while the Naturals were 1-16 and stranded 14.

*The Drillers will play as the TulsaSound for the final time this season in Sunday afternoon's series finale with Northwest Arkansas.

UP NEXT:

Tulsa will close out the first half of the season and its series with the Naturals on Sunday afternoon at ONEOK Field. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. and the starting pitchers for the finale are expected to be:

NWA - RHP Andrew Hoffmann (2-5, 6.09 ERA)

TUL- RHP Ben Casparius (0-2, 4.91 ERA)

Check out the Tulsa Drillers Statistics

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



Images from this story

Tulsa Drillers' Nick Nastrini in action
Tulsa Drillers' Nick Nastrini in action
(Rich Crimi)		   



Texas League Stories from June 24, 2023


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