Arkansas Travelers Score Late to Sink Tulsa Drillers

Both teams' pitching settled in for five scoreless innings, but Arkansas capitalized late to grab the win.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 11:55 am

By: News On 6

Arkansas Travelers Score Late to Sink Tulsa Drillers

Originally Published: Aug 25, 2010 10:30 PM CDT

Gerald Goodridge
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas -- After a flurry of early scoring followed by five scoreless innings, the Arkansas Travelers took a late lead to top the Tulsa Drillers 5-4.

After tying the game five innings earlier, the Travelers (53-75) put up two runs in the bottom of the eighth to take the lead. After Jeremy Moore reached on a ground-ball single, Roberto Lopez singled to left field to bring Moore and Efren Navarro home to take a 5-3 lead.

In the top of the ninth, Tulsa (61-66) had runners on first and third with no outs when Bronson Sardinha grounded into a double play allowing Anthony Jackson to score and close to one run. In the next at-bat, Jason Van Kooten flied out to center field to end the game.

The Drillers’ first run of the game came in the top of the first when a balk by Arkansas starter Ryan Brasier brought Jackson home from third.

In the bottom of the first, Navarro sent a home run over the center field wall with Ryan Mount on base to take a 2-1 lead.

Tulsa responded with a leadoff home run by Scott Beerer in the second inning to tie the game. Three at-bats later, Jackson grounded into a force out that allowed Lars Davis to score from second to take a 3-2 lead.

Abel Nieves homered in the second at-bat of the second to tie the game, which stayed deadlocked for the next five full innings.

Travelers’ reliever Jeremy Haynes (3-0) stayed undefeated on the season, after allowing just two hits and striking out four in his three innings of service. Chris Malone (3-4) received a loss for his one inning outing, after allowing one earned run on two hits.