Drillers Pull Off Win With More Extra Inning Heroics

The Tulsa Drillers have displayed quite the dramatic flair in Northwest Arkansas this weekend. On Friday, Christian Bergman tossed the club's first complete-game shutout in more than two years. Then on Saturday, they scored three times in the ninth to pull off an improbable late-inning comeback.

In Sunday's series finale, the Drillers saw their two-run lead evaporate late before Dustin Garneau's RBI single in the top of the 11th gave the club a 3-2 series-clinching victory over the Naturals at Arvest Ballpark.

With one out in the 11th, Tyler Kuhn reached second base when his routine fly ball popped out of left fielder Roman Hernandez' glove. Kuhn, who was running hard out of the box, slid into second just ahead of the throw from Hernandez following the error. After Angelys Nina grounded out, Garneau lined Santiago Garrido's 3-2 offering into left field to drive in Kuhn with the go-ahead run.

The Drillers have now won three straight games and seven of their last nine to improve to 21-23 in the second half and 55-57 overall on the year.

Although Northwest Arkansas' late rally robbed him of the win, highly touted prospect Eddie Butler came as advertised on Sunday night. In his Texas League debut, the right-hander from Virginia held the Naturals to just two hits in five impressive innings of work.

Butler, the Rockies' No. 3 prospect according to MLB.com, struck out six and walked none in his debut. He also displayed great command on the mound, needing just 54 pitches to get through five innings.

Tulsa jumped ahead 1-0 in the fourth on a two-out RBI single from Angelys Nina. With two outs, Kuhn ripped a triple into the right field corner to extend the inning. Nina followed with a base hit into shallow right field to score Kuhn with the game's first run.

The Drillers got doubles from Cristhian Adames and Kiel Roling in the sixth to extend their lead out to two. Adames led off the inning two-bagger to left field and came around to score when Roling traded places with him four pitches later.

The double was Roling's 24th of the season, tying him for the team-lead with Kent Matthes, who is now with the Triple-A Colorado Springs Sky Sox.

Tulsa limited Northwest Arkansas to just two hits through the first seven innings, but walks proved costly for reliever Mike Solbach in the eighth. The right-hander came on to begin the inning and promptly issued back-to-back walks to Matt Fields and Mitch Canham. After Whit Merrifield sacrificed both players into scoring position, Angel Franco broke up the shutout with an RBI single to right to score Fields. Brett Eibner then lined a base hit into left field to plate Canham and square the game at 2-2.

The score remained tied until Garneau's RBI single three innings later.

Kenny Roberts pitched a scoreless 10th to record his first win as a Driller. Cole White then came on and nailed down his 14th save of the year.

The Drillers are off Monday before returning to ONEOK Field to kick off a six-game homestand with the Midland RockHounds Tuesday. Right-hander Daniel Winkler (12-5, 2.97 ERA at Advanced-A Modesto) is expected to make his Texas League debut for the Drillers. Midland will counter with Drew Garnier (2-5, 4.21 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05PM