TL1 Tulsa Drillers

Wimberly Haunts Drillers

Published on August 15, 2009 under Texas League (TL1)
Tulsa Drillers News Release


In his two seasons in Tulsa, Corey Wimberly was a cog in many big wins for the Drillers. Saturday night he played the role for Midland against his former teammates. Wimberly had four hits as the RockHounds defeated Tulsa 7-4 in game one of a three-game series at Drillers Stadium.

Even with the loss, the Drillers remained only two games behind first-place Northwest Arkansas in the North Division standings. The Naturals were beaten 9-6 by Frisco.

Things started promisingly for the Drillers in the loss. They took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first without getting a hit. Daniel Mayora walked and then stole second before heading to third on a groundout by Darin Holcomb. He crossed the plate on Jeff Kindel's sacrifice fly went to deep center.

Ryan Harvey doubled Tulsa's lead with a line drive, solo home run in the second. It was his fourth consecutive game with a homer and his fifth home run in the past six games.

The lead disappeared with a five-run fourth inning from the RockHounds. After a walk and two singles loaded the bases, Drillers' starting pitcher Ching-Lung Lo walked his third batter of the game to force home Matthew Spencer for RockHounds' first run. Midland scored two more runs when Alex Valdez doubled home Josh Donaldson and Archie Gilbert. Josh Horton then scored from third on a sacrifice fly by Matthew Sulentic to make it 4-2. Midland's last run in the fourth came from Valdez when he was singled home by Wimberly.

In the top of the sixth, Midland increased its lead to 7-2 after Gilbert singled and scored on Sulentic's double. Wimberly then lined a single to center that plated Sulentic.

The score remained the same until the Drillers attempted to rally in the bottom of the ninth. After consecutive singles by Cole Garner and Brad Corley, Danny Sandoval doubled home Garner to cut the lead to 7-3. Darin Holcomb then plated Corley for the Drillers' fourth run with a ground ball single to right. With the tying run at the plate, Rocky Roquet retired Kindel on strikes to end the game.

Tulsa's starter Lo made his first appearance for the Drillers since August 1, 2008. Lo held the RockHounds scoreless through the first three innings before running into the fourth-inning trouble. He was eventually charged with five runs on five hits in three innings of work.

The ninth-inning single by Garner extended his hitting streak to 16 straight games.

The Drillers will play game two against the RockHounds at 6:05PM Sunday evening at Drillers Stadium. Tulsa's Keith Weiser (7-12, 5.36 ERA) will take the mound against Kyle Middleton (2-0, 1.55 ERA) of Midland.

Check out the Tulsa Drillers Statistics

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Texas League Stories from August 15, 2009


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