Drillers Knock Off NW Arkansas In Walk-Off Fashion

One swing of the bat is all it takes to change a game in baseball.

Wednesday night in Tulsa, it was two swings of the bat that changed the game twice, once for Northwest Arkansas and once for the home town Drillers.

After Rey Navarro hit a go-ahead home run in the top of the ninth inning, Jayson Langfels hit a two-run single in the bottom of the ninth to give Tulsa a walk-off, 4-3 win over the Naturals.

Tulsa reliever Juan Gonzalez had come on to close out the game in the ninth inning after a stellar six-inning outing from starter Tim Gustafson when Navarro launched a shot to right field with one out.

The homer spoiled Gustafson's performance, a four-hit, one earned run showing over six innings of work.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Northwest Arkansas reliever Jason Bergmann walked Kiel Roling and Tyler Kuhn to start the inning before Angelys Nina loaded the bases on a bunt single.

Langfels then came to the plate and ripped a single up the middle that scored Roling from third. However, center fielder Brett Eibner couldn't control the ball, allowing Kuhn to score from second to give Tulsa the win.

The Drillers scored in the bottom of the first inning on a two-run homer from Kyle Parker, his 16th home run of the season. Northwest Arkansas added a run in the fifth and seventh innings, the first on a sacrifice fly and the second on an RBI-single.

The Drillers start a seven-game road trip Thursday, travelling to begin a four-game series with Arkansas with first pitch set for 7:10 p.m.