Drillers Drops Series Opener Against Naturals

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma – Northwest Arkansas entered Monday's game with a chance to make up some serious ground in the standings.

And they got that mission off to a good start with a 10-6 victory over the Drillers at ONEOK Field.

Tulsa is in first place in the Texas League's North Division, but the Naturals are in second place. And with the Naturals' win on Monday, that lead in the standings has been reduced to four games.

Northwest Arkansas came out of the gate in style, sending back-to-back solo homers over the wall in the top of the first to take a 2-0 lead.

By the middle of the sixth inning, the Naturals had already increased their lead to 7-1, but Tulsa wasn't going to go down without a fight.

A double from Nolan Arenado in the bottom of the sixth brought home Warren Schaeffer and Josh Rutledge to start to chip away at the lead.

Then in the bottom of the eighth, Kiel Roling homered to score Jimmy Cesario as well, and the Drillers racked up three runs in the inning.

But it proved to be too little, too late for the Drillers as they simply couldn't keep up with the Naturals' blistering pace.

Joe Gardner picked up the loss for Tulsa, giving up 10 hits and five runs in 4.2 innings.

Elisaul Pimentel got the win for Northwest Arkansas in five innings of pitching.

The series will continue at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday in Tulsa.