Tulsa, OK – For the second straight game, the Tulsa Drillers used a combination of power hitting and strong starting pitching Thursday night to record a victory over Northwest Arkansas. The Drillers backed an outstanding outing on the mound from Adam Serwinowski with six extra-base hits, including a pair of homers, and defeated the Naturals 9-3 at ONEOK Field.
The victory upped Tulsa’s winning streak to three straight games, with the wins coming in the first three games of six-game series with the Naturals.
The Drillers improved their second-half record to 18-12 with the result, allowing them to keep pace with streaking Springfield. The first-place Cardinals won their seventh straight game on Thursday, keeping them two games in front of the second-place Drillers in the North Division of the Texas League.
The Drillers started quickly with Kendall George leading off the bottom of the first inning with a ground-rule double. After advancing to third on an infield grounder, George scored the game’s first run on a sacrifice fly from Jake Gelof.
Tulsa expanded its lead in the second inning. Kole Myers led off with a base hit and Nelson Quiroz, in his first plate appearance since a lengthy stay on the injured list, lined a double into the right field corner. With Myers at third and Quiroz at second, Jose Izarra plated them both with a double down the left field line that increased the lead to 3-0.
The margin continued to swell with a big third inning. Chris Newell’s two-run homer upped the lead to five runs. Later in the third, Sam Mongelli’s first Double-A home run, a three-run shot, made the score 8-0.
The sixth run of the inning came when George followed Mongelli with his second double of the game, and Josue De Paula singled him home.
After three innings, the Drillers had already totaled ten hits and held a 9-0 lead.
Serwinowski was the beneficiary of the early outburst, and he took full advantage. The lefthander kept the Naturals hitless and scoreless through the first four innings before losing both on former major leaguer Jorge Alfaro’s solo home run in the top of the fifth.
Serwinowski departed after six innings and Alfaro’s blast was the only blemish on his pitching line. He surrendered just the one run and one hit and struck out six batters while walking three.
The Naturals tacked on single runs in both the seventh and eighth inning to account for the final score.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak for Serwinowski and improved his season record to 8-4. The eight wins are the second-most this year in the Texas League.
GAME NOTES
*The Drillers finished with 14 hits in the game. They have reached double figures in hits in all three victories over the Naturals and have 40 total.
*Every batter in the Tulsa lineup had at least one hit, led by Quiroz who had three hits in what was his first game with the Drillers since April 22. George, Myers and Mongelli all had two hits each.
*Jake Gelof extended his hitting streak to five consecutive games, and De Paula extended his own streak to four games.
*Lucas Wepf pitched around a two-out single and walk to work a scoreless ninth inning. The second out of the inning came on a strikeout of Canyon Brown with strike three on a fastball that registered 101 m.p.h. on the stadium’s radar gun.
*Former Arkansas Razorbacks pitcher Zach Root will make his Double-A debut on Friday for the Drillers. Root, who was the first round draft choice of the Los Angeles Dodgers last year, will be Tulsa’s starting pitcher.
UP NEXT
The Drillers and Naturals will meet in the fourth game of their six-game set on Friday night at ONEOK Field. Starting time is set for 7:00 p.m. and the pitching matchup is expected to be:
NW Arkansas – RHP Steven Zobac (1-4, 4.55 ERA)
Tulsa – LHP Zach Root (Double-A debut: 3-3, 2.40 ERA in High A)