Long Night in Wichita Ends with a 9-1 Drillers Victory
WICHITA, KS – The Tulsa Drillers made it 11 wins in their last 13 games with an emphatic win in Wichita Friday night. The Drillers scored early and often with the only thing slowing them down being an early rain delay. The Drillers scored two first-inning runs and never trailed
WICHITA, KS – The Tulsa Drillers made it 11 wins in their last 13 games with an emphatic win in Wichita Friday night. The Drillers scored early and often with the only thing slowing them down being an early rain delay.
The Drillers scored two first-inning runs and never trailed in recording a 9-1 victory on a long night at Riverfront Stadium.
Tulsa just missed recording its eighth shutout of the season as Wichita scored its only run of the night in the bottom of the ninth inning.
The game took nearly five hours to complete as it was stopped once by a first-inning rain delay and a second time in the eighth inning by a nearby fireworks celebration.
The Drillers wasted little time in taking a lead in the game. Newcomer Austin Gauthier, the game’s first batter, doubled and then scored when Jorbit Vivas also doubled on the very next pitch. After a fly out, Imanol Vargas hit the third double of the inning to plate Vivas and give Tulsa a 2-0 lead.
Yusniel Diaz belted his third homer of the season in the top of the second for the Drillers third run.
It remained 3-0 until back-to-back three-run innings in the fifth and sixth quickly increased the margin to nine runs.
In the fifth a wild pitch and a two-run single from Eddy Leonard produced the three runs.
A passed ball gave the Drillers their first run in the sixth before a run-scoring single from Jose Ramos and a run-scoring double from Imanol Vargas made it 9-0.
The only negative of the night for the Drillers came from the first-inning rain delay that produced an early exit for starting pitcher Nick Frasso. Frasso recorded only one out in the bottom of the first before rain halted the action.
When play resumed, Braydon Fisher took over for Frasso and finished the first inning and worked around a walk and a hit batter in a scoreless second inning.
River Ryan took over from there and was outstanding. The University of North Carolina at Pembroke product worked five no-hit, scoreless innings while striking out six.
Wichita’s ninth-inning run came against Kevin Gowdy, the first run the right-hander has allowed since joining the Drillers.
HIGHLIGHTS AND HAPPENINGS:
*Diego Cartaya was hitless in five at-bats ending his home run streak at four straight games.
*Vivas, Ramos and Vargas, hitting in the two, three and four spots in the Tulsa lineup, had two hits each.
*Ryan was credited with the win, his first of the season and his first at the Double-A level.
*The rain and fireworks delays totaled one hour and 31 minutes. The game which began at 6:45 p.m. local time, did not end until almost 11:30 p.m.
*The Drillers now lead the Coors Light Propeller Series between the two teams 7-3. The winner of the season series will be presented with the Propeller Trophy by Coors Light. There are now 14 games remaining in this year’s regular season series.
*The Drillers scored at least seven runs in the victory and that means fans can purchase a large, one-topping pizza from Mazzio's for just $7 on Saturday. The special offer is good throughout the day and is only available online at Mazzios.com when you use the code DRILLERS at checkout.
UP NEXT:
The Drillers and Wind Surge will play the fifth game of their six-game series Saturday evening at Riverfront Stadium. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m. and the starting pitchers are scheduled to be:
TUL – RHP Emmet Sheehan (3-1, 1.64 ERA)
WCH – RHP Chad Donato (1-4, 10.72 ERA)