Frisco Rallies To Beat Drillers

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Tulsa leading 5-4 and Juan Gonzalez on the hill, Frisco's Teodoro Martinez hit a potential game-ending groundball to shortstop Joey Wong. But the usually sure-handed Wong botched the play, allowing Martinez to reach first base and extend the game.

After pinch-hitter Tomas Telis singled, Luis Sardinas knotted the game at five with an RBI base hit to right. Friday night's hero Rougned Odor then came to plate and, on a 3-2 pitch from Gonzalez, dropped an RBI single into center field to give the RoughRiders their second straight, come-from-behind, 6-5 walk-off victory over the Drillers in Frisco.

Tulsa, which entered Frisco with an outstanding 25-15 record in one-run games has now lost two in a row, and falls to 27-28 in the second half (61-62 overall).

With Arkansas' win on Saturday, the Drillers now trail the Travelers by two games in the North Division standings.

Daniel Winkler, who recorded his first Double-A win last Sunday over the Riders, yielded just one run on four hits over five innings Saturday, but had to settle for the no decision. The right-hander struck out four and issued just one walk in the game.

Although both ninth inning runs were unearned, Gonzalez was saddled with his third loss of the season.

Tulsa jumped ahead of Frisco with three runs in the second following a scoreless first inning. Angelys Nina led off with a single and Tom Murphy followed with a double into the left field corner to put two runners in scoring position with no outs. Jayson Langfels delivered both Nina and Murphy a batter later by lacing a double of his own to left field.

After advancing to third on a productive groundout by Dallas Tarleton, Langfels scored when Jaron Shepherd lined a two-out single into center field.

Tarleton and Shepherd teamed up with Tyler Kuhn in the fourth to add two more runs to Tulsa's total. With two outs, Tarleton yanked a single into right to extend the inning and stole second to move himself into scoring position. Shepherd again capitalized on the opportunity by lining another RBI single into center.

After Shepherd stole second and advanced to third on catcher Brett Teschner's throwing error, Kuhn plated the speedy center fielder with an infield single to stretch the Drillers' advantage Tulsa Drillers manager Kevin Riggs must've thought he was experiencing déjà vu on Saturday night. Less than 24 hours removed from seeing his club blow a late lead and suffer a gut-wrenching extra-inning defeat, the Drillers were just one out away from gaining some redemption on the Frisco RoughRiders. Then the wheels fell off.

Frisco plated its first run on back-to-back-to-back singles in the fourth inning. But with two on and one out, Winkler got Chih-Hsien Chiang to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to dispel the Riders' threat.

In the seventh, Kalain Sams went yard off Tulsa reliever Dan Houston to cut Frisco's deficit to three. Sams, who hails from The Hague, Netherlands, has now hit 12 home runs in the Texas League this season.

The RoughRiders scored two more runs in the eighth off of Houston to make things interesting. After Teschner led off the inning with a single, Luis Sardinas reached on an error by the first baseman Tarleton. Both runners advanced on a groundout and, after a strikeout, came home to score on a two-out, two-run single by Brett Nicholas.

Juan Gonzalez came on for Houston in the ninth, and the rest is history.

The Drillers and RockHounds return to Dr. Pepper Ballpark Sunday for the final game of their three-game series. Tulsa will start Tim Gustafson (6-9, 5.18 ERA) as it looks to finish off its final regular season road trip to Texas in winning fashion. Neil Ramirez (9-3, 3.73 ERA) will take the mound for Frisco. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m.