Tulsa Drillers Stomp Midland 7-2

The Tulsa Drillers opened a three game home series against the Midland RockHounds with a 7-2 victory Saturday night in front of more than 6,000 fans in downtown Tulsa.

The Drillers held Midland to just three hits while producing 10 of their own.

The game was scoreless until Tulsa got on the board in the bottom of the second. Kiel Roling reached on a Midland fielding error and went on to steal second base. Two batters later, Tim Torres sent a fly ball to left center for a double that plated Roling. Michael Mitchell followed up with hard hit single to left that scored Torres to give the Drillers a 2-0 lead.

Later in the fourth with one on and two out, Lars Davis managed a single that brought Kent Matthes around the bags from second to make it 3-0 in favor of the Drillers.

Midland put its first run on the board in the fifth as Michael Spina leadoff with a walk and advanced around the bases to score when Jeremy Barfield connected a ball up the middle for a single cutting the score to 3-1.

But Tulsa also managed a run in the fifth as Josh Rutledge smacked a double left and Nolan Arenado later singled to plate Rutledge to increase the Drillers lead to 4-1.

In the bottom of the seventh frame, Tulsa used two singles and a fly out to bring home three runs and go up 7-1 entering the final two innings.

Midland would add one more in the eighth, but it wasn't enough to cut into Tulsa's big lead.

Tulsa's Arenado and Mitchell both went 1-for-3 with two RBI on the night to pace the Drillers.

Joe Gardner went six innings on the mound for Tulsa striking out four and allowing one hit to pick up his second victory of the season.

Game two of the series is slated for Sunday at 7:05 p.m.