Tulsa, OK – The Tulsa Drillers closed out the first half of their longest home stand of the season on a winning note Sunday night. The Drillers backed a strong outing from starting pitcher Patrick Copen with three home runs and defeated Arkansas 6-1 at ONEOK Field.
The Drillers finished their six-game series against the Travelers with five wins. They have only lost one home series this season and just three total, when also counting road series.
With the win, Tulsa moved into a first-place tie with Springfield atop the second-half standings of the Texas League’s North Division. The Cardinals fell 6-5 to Northwest Arkansas.
Joe Vetrano opened the game’s scoring when he continued his recent hot streak in the second inning. After Frank Rodriguez singled, the first baseman hit a two-run homer that put the Drillers in front, and it marked the third straight game that he has hit a home run. Vetrano has hit nine homers on the season.
They used a similar script to double the lead to 4-0 in the third inning. With one out, Griffin Lockwood-Powell, who had just returned to Tulsa earlier in the day, doubled to the base of the wall in straightaway center field. On the next pitch, Jake Gelof smashed a drive well over the left-center field fence for another two-run homer. For Gelof, it was his team-leading 25th home run of the season, and it traveled an impressive 461 feet.
Tulsa starting pitcher Patrick Copen lost his shutout bid in the top of the fourth. Hunter Fitz-Gerald led off and blooped a perfectly placed fly into shallow left field that fell in between three defenders for a double. Boston Smith picked up another RBI when he lined a base hit into centerfield that scored Fitz-Gerald to make it 4-1. Smith hit a grand slam in Saturday’s game to give him five RBI over his last two games.
The third homer of the night from the Drillers got the run back in the bottom of the fifth, and it came from Josue De Paula. The outfielder led off with his 22nd home run to restore the lead to four runs at 5-1. De Paula’s blast cleared not only the right field fence, but the stadium’s perimeter fencing and landed on Elgin Avenue before bouncing into the outdoor plaza of Noche Grill.
A pair of seventh-inning errors by Arkansas gave Tulsa its biggest lead of the night. First, right fielder Sammy Siani dropped Logan Wagner’s fly ball for a two-base error, and first baseman Fitz-Gerald failed to come up with a grounder from Kole Myers, allowing Wagner to score the sixth run for the Drillers.
Copen protected his early lead with one of his most impressive outings this season. The right-hander pitched into the seventh inning, finishing with 6 2/3 innings. He was charged with just one run on five hits and one walk. Copen set his season highs with the ten strikeouts and the 6 2/3 innings pitched.
The newly activated Roque Gutierrez finished the game with 2 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing one hit and two walks with two strikeouts
GAME NOTES
*Overall, it was the 73rd win of the year for the Drillers against 41 losses. It is the 49th season for the Drillers franchise and the record for most wins in a season is 78 set by the 1998 and 2019 teams. The Drillers have 24 games remaining in the 2026 regular season.
The all-time Tulsa professional baseball record for wins was set by the 1968 Tulsa Oilers when they were the Triple-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. The Oilers went 95-53 in the ’68 season. Ironically, the Cardinals were the defending World Series champions that year, like the Drillers parent club the Los Angeles Dodgers are this year. Professional baseball was first played in Tulsa in 1905.
*The win for Copen improved his season record to 7-6. The outing was his best since he started the season by going 3-0 with a 0.96 ERA in April when he was named the Texas League’s Pitcher of the Month. It continued a recent trend for Copen. In three appearances in August, he is 2-0 with a 0.59 ERA and 25 strikeouts across 15 1/3 innings pitched.
*Vetrano went 2-4 and has homered in three straight games. In the three games, he is 4-9 with four RBI.
*Gelof extended a pair of streaks with his third-inning homer. He has now hit safely in six straight games and has also driven in a run in six straight. Gelof is hitting .421 and has 9 RBI in the streak.
*Taylor Young was picked off first base after singling in the second inning. He was officially charged with a caught stealing, his first of the season at the Double-A level after 14 straight successful steal attempts.
At the plate, Young had 2 more hits and finished with 12 total in the six-game series and a .429 batting average.
*The Drillers announced a pair of roster additions on Sunday. One, was the return of Lockwood-Powell from Oklahoma City, and the other was the activation of Gutierrez form the Injured List.
*Mike Sirota missed his second straight game. The outfielder was struck on the elbow by a pitch on Friday and had to exit that game early. Sirota remains on Tulsa’s active roster.
UP NEXT
The Drillers will have a day off on Monday before continuing their home stand on Tuesday night. It will be the first game of a six-game series with the Amarillo Sod Poodles. Starting time for Tuesday’s opener is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at ONEOK Field, and neither team has announced its pitching plans for the series.