North Little Rock, AR – The Tulsa Drillers seemed positioned to record a winning road trip on Sunday afternoon in North Little Rock. They had rallied from an early four-run deficit and carried a 6-4 lead over Arkansas into the bottom of the eighth inning before things fell apart.
The Travelers took full advantage of three walks, an error and a wild pitch to score four times in that pivotal eighth and went on to defeat the Drillers 8-6 at Dickey-Stephens Park.
It gave the two teams a split of their six-game series. The outcome left Tulsa with a 4-5 record on its longest road trip of the season after opening the trip with a 1-2 record in a three-game set in Frisco.
The late loss dropped the Drillers second-half record to 15-12 and dropped them two games behind first-place Springfield in the Texas League’s North Division.
They now return home and will open a series with Northwest Arkansas on Tuesday night at ONEOK Field. The Drillers will play 18 of their next 24 games at home.
Aiden Foeller took the mound for Tulsa in Sunday’s finale in what was the Double-A debut for the Southern Illinois University product. Foeller worked around a walk and his own error to complete a scoreless first inning before running into problems in the second.
After retiring the first batter of the inning, an error followed by a triple from Jared Sundstrom gave the Travelers the first run of the game.
Foeller got a pop out for the second out of the inning, but the third out was tough to come by. After another walk, Jonny Farmelo hit his second Double-A home run to promptly give the Travelers a 4-0 lead. Following the homer, Foeller surrendered a double and then hit a batter before getting a strikeout to end the long, four-run inning. Because of the error, all four runs were unearned.
Tulsa got on the scoreboard in the fourth inning when a walk, a base hit and a wild pitch set up a two-out, two-run single from designated hitter Sam Mongelli that cut the four-run deficit in half.
The Drillers completely erased it with a four-run top of the fifth. The rally began with three straight one-out singles from Mike Sirota, Jake Gelof and Zyhir Hope that loaded the bases. After a strikeout, Taylor Young delivered a two-run single that tied the game.
Tulsa got a break when first baseman Hunter Fitz-Gerald failed to backhand Hayden Gilliland’s grounder, allowing Hope and Young to race home to give the Drillers a 6-4 lead.
Roque Gutierrez had been brilliant out of the Tulsa bullpen, delivering four scoreless innings, but the Travelers ended his scoreless string with the third four-run inning of the game in the bottom of the eighth.
The inning began with a base hit and a walk. Aaron McKeithan followed with another hit, and when leftfielder Kole Myers mishandled the grounder, the Travs scored their first run of the inning to cut Tulsa’s lead to just one.
A base hit from Sundstrom loaded the bases and ended Gutierrez’s outing. Lucas Wepf came on and walked the first batter he faced on four pitches to force home the game-tying run. A second consecutive walk handed Arkansas the go-ahead run before a wild pitch upped the lead to 8-6.
Wepf recovered to get three straight outs to keep the deficit at two runs and give the Drillers a chance at another comeback in the ninth.
Sirota drew a leadoff walk before a strikeout and fielder’s choice ground out moved the Travelers to within one out of a win, but Elijah Hainline kept things interesting with a base hit that left runners and first and second.
The hit brought Young to the plate representing the potential, go-ahead run. Travs’ reliever Brock Moore opened the at-bat with two straight balls before getting a pair of strikes. After a pitch-clock violation on Moore ran the count full, Young grounded out to first to end the threat and Tulsa’s hopes of a comeback.
GAME NOTES
*Foeller departed his debut after two innings, giving up the four unearned runs on three hits and two walks while striking out a pair. He did not factor in the decision.
*The sloppy game featured seven errors, including three from the Drillers.
*Gutierrez suffered the tough-luck loss, his first of the year that dropped his record to 7-1.
*The Drillers played the game without Josue De Paula and Kendall George who were both given the day off.
UP NEXT
The Drillers will now return home to open a six-game series with Northwest Arkansas on Tuesday night at ONEOK Field. Starting time for the opener is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and neither team has announced its starting pitchers.