Tulsa, OK – Jake Gelof and Kole Myers staged their own version of a home run derby competition on Thursday night at ONEOK Field, and it led to a third straight victory for the Tulsa Drillers. Gelof and Myers hit two home runs each and powered the Drillers to an 8-2 win over Wichita.
Gelof finished a perfect 3-3 in the game with the 2 homers and 5 RBI, and he moved closer to putting his name atop the Tulsa professional baseball record book. He now has 32 home runs on the season, just one away from tying the modern-era Tulsa record of 33 homers in a season held by former Drillers outfielder Tim Wheeler. The modern-era of Tulsa baseball is considered to have begun in 1932.
The win also increased the Drillers record-breaking win total. It was their 81st victory of the season, the most in the history of the Drillers franchise that began play in 1977. The last Tulsa professional team to win more games was the 1968 Tulsa Oilers who totaled 95 wins in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.
For the first time in the series with the Wind Surge, the Drillers scored first. In the bottom of the first inning, Wichita first baseman Luis Hernandez misplayed Josue De Paula’s liner for an error to open the door for the first run. Mike Sirota advanced De Paula to third with a double, and Gelof brought him home with a sacrifice fly that Garrett Spain caught on the centerfield warning track.
Tulsa starting pitcher Aidan Foeller retired six of the first seven hitters he faced before getting into a jam in the third inning. A walk and a pair of singles loaded the bases with one out, but Foeller enticed an inning-ending, double-play grounder from Brandon Winokur to end the threat.
Gelof’s second RBI in the third inning doubled the Tulsa lead. Sean McLain, who was just activated from the injured list earlier in the day, led off with a ground-rule double in his first at-bat of the night. With two outs, Gelof lined a base hit into right field that scored McLain to make it 2-0.
Khadim Diaw ended Foeller’s shutout with a solo home run with two outs in the top of the fifth.
The Drillers got that run back, plus two more, in the bottom half of the fifth. Myers accounted for the first run with his first homer of the night, an opposite-field drive that was just inside the left field foul pole.
Later in the fifth, Sirota singled and Gelof followed with a line drive into the Country Financial Terrace in left field for his 31st home run of the year.
The home run display continued into the sixth inning. After McLain was hit by a pitch, Myers struck again with a blast over the centerfield fence for his second homer of the game and his ninth of the season, giving the Drillers a 7-1 lead.
Not to be outdone, Gelof led off the seventh inning with his second homer to account for Tulsa’s final run of the night.
It was more run support than Foeller and the Tulsa bullpen needed. Foeller worked the first five innings to get the win that improved his Double-A record to 2-1. He gave up 7 hits and 2 walks while striking out 7 in 5.0 complete innings.
Carson Hobbs worked a perfect sixth inning, while Jacob Kmatz gave up one run in 2.0 relief innings.
Evan Shaw closed it out with a scoreless ninth inning.
The Drillers are now 81-48 on the season.
GAME NOTES
*Gelof’s two homers moved him past Jim Beauchamp and Joe Koshansky into a three-way tie for second place on Tulsa’s all-time, season home run list. He is tied with Bubba Smith (1998) and Kevin Buckley (1983) with 32 homers, just one behind record holder Wheeler.
*The two-homer night continued a home run tear for Myers. He had five homers in August, the most he has ever had in a single month during his two-year professional career.
*The sacrifice fly from Gelof in the first inning was his 11th of the season, establishing a new Drillers franchise record. Not to be overlooked, he also extended his hitting streak to 11 straight games, just two short of De Paula’s season-best 13-game streak.
*McLain finished 1-3 with 2 runs scored in his first game since July 5. He now has a six-game hitting streak.
*Sirota returned to the lineup for the first time in a week and was 2-4.
UP NEXT
The two teams will meet again on Friday night at ONEOK Field in the fourth game of their six-game series. Starting time is set for 7:00 p.m. and the starting pitchers are scheduled to be:
Wichita – RHP Preston Johnson (1-3, 3.94ERA)
Tulsa – RHP Christian Zazueta (2-2, 3.48 ERA)