Arkansas Holds Off Drillers 4-3

The Travelers scored early and held Tulsa the rest of the game to go on to the 4-3 victory.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:24 pm

By: News On 6

Originally Published: May 14, 2011 11:18 PM CDT

Oklahoma Sports Staff

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas—The Arkansas Travelers bounced back from Friday’s 9-1 loss to the Tulsa Drillers with a 4-3 victory Saturday.

The Travelers got the scoring done in the first two innings and relied on pitching to save the day. Meanwhile the Drillers efforted a comeback, but came up short.

In the bottom of the first, Luis Jimenez doubled on a line drive to left field which allowed Darwin Perez to score. Then, with two runners on and one out, Dillon Baird got a hit for Arkansas, and although he was thrown out at first, it scored Jimenez.

Later in the bottom of the second, a handful on singles helped the Travelers tack on two more runs when Angel Castillo singled to left which scored Jon Townsend followed by another single by Mike Trout to score Castillo.

The Drillers got on the board in the third thanks to a home run to right by Tim Wheeler, his 11th homer of the season.

The fourth saw Tulsa add two more runs. Ben Paulsen, Darin Holcomb and Wilin Rosario all singled then Brian Rike knocked a line drive to left to score Paulsen and Holcomb, but that would be all the scoring for the evening from both teams.

The remaining 4.5 innings saw a total of 12 strikeouts including four at bats that resulted in three-up-three down batters.

Matt Shoemaker gets the win for the Travelers while Aaron Cook returned to the mound from rehab but took the loss. Ryan Brasier was credited with the save for the Travelers.

The two teams return to action Sunday at 2 p.m. to decide who wins the five game series.