Hooks Rally to Defeat Tulsa in Extras
Corpus Christi, TX – The Tulsa Drillers nightmarish road trip continued on Wednesday night at Whataburger Field. Tulsa carried a 5-1 lead into the seventh inning when the Corpus Christi Hooks began their comeback by scoring in each of the final five innings. Twelve walks from Tulsa pitchers also aided
Corpus Christi, TX – The Tulsa Drillers nightmarish road trip continued on Wednesday night at Whataburger Field. Tulsa carried a 5-1 lead into the seventh inning when the Corpus Christi Hooks began their comeback by scoring in each of the final five innings. Twelve walks from Tulsa pitchers also aided the Hooks efforts, with six being issued after the sixth inning in the Drillers 7-6 loss.
The loss brought the Drillers record to 1-7 on the current two-week road trip and 2-12 in the last 14 road games.
Tulsa’s power helped gain the initial lead. Chris Newell hit his first Double-A home run, which gave the Drillers a 1-0 lead in the first.
Noah Miller drew a walk to begin the third inning, and after he stole second base, he scored on Cristian Santana's single. Griffin Lockwood-Powell was next and needed only three pitches to increase Tulsa’s lead to 4-0 when he smashed a two-run homer.
Tulsa starting pitcher Jerming Rosario was effective through the first two innings, but he issued two walks to begin the Hooks half of the third. With the two runners on, Brice Matthews earned the Hooks first hit against Rosario and drove in the first run with his single to center.
The Drillers gained that run back in the fourth inning when Miller drove in Donovan Casey on a single to center field to make the score 5-1.
The Hooks rally began in the seventh inning when Zach Cole drew a one-out walk. Cole advanced to scoring position after he stole second base and later scored on Luis Baez’s RBI single for the Hooks second run.
A double began the eighth inning for Corpus Christi, and Rolando Espinosa narrowed the Drillers lead to one run with a two-run homer.
The Drillers entered the bottom of the ninth with a one-run lead, and Ryan Sublette walked Matthews to start the inning. Matthews stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch to set up Colin Barber’s game-tying sacrifice fly to send the game to extra innings.
After a single began the Drillers half of the tenth inning, Newell hit a sacrifice fly that scored the placed runner and gave the Drillers a 6-5 lead.
Tulsa failed to hold the one-run lead in the tenth. Lucas Wepf walked the first two batters to load the bases, and Espinosa tied the game with a sacrifice fly.
In the Drillers half of the 11th inning, Lockwood-Powell flew out to advance the placed runner to third base, but Tulsa could not drive in the runner as Jose Ramos struck out and Taylor Young flew out to end the inning.
The Hooks half of the 11th began with an intentional walk to set up the double play. Wepf followed by walking his fourth batter to load the bases with no outs, and after a strikeout, Barber singled to right field to score the winning run.
INSIDE THE GAME
*The loss was just the Drillers fourth when leading after eight innings, and they are 43-4 in those games. It was also Tulsa's 30th loss after leading in the game.
*It was also the Drillers fourth walk-off loss of the two-week road trip.
*Corpus Christi stole four bases against Tulsa pitchers.
*The two home runs from the Drillers brought their season total to 119, the fourth most in Double-A. Tulsa trails just Amarillo, Somerset and Reading.
*Wepf was charged with the loss and his fourth blown save of the season. His record is now 4-4.
*Rosario was charged with just one run and one hit as he finished throwing 79 pitches in 4.0 innings. Walks were still trouble for Rosario as he issued four free passes, two of which were to leadoff hitters.
*For the first time this season, Young was thrown out two times on the bases. He leads the Texas League with 42 stolen bases and is 42-50 in stolen base attempts.
*Newell’s homer was his 24th of 2024, as he finished with 23 blasts with the Great Lake Loons this season.
UP NEXT:
The Drillers and Hooks will play the third game of their six-game series on Thursday night at Whataburger Field. The game is scheduled to begin at 6:35 p.m. and the starting pitchers are expected to be:
Tulsa – RHP Orlando Ortiz-Mayr (7-6, 4.69 ERA)
Corpus Christi – RHP Jose Fleury (1-3, 3.96 ERA)