Drillers fall to Travelers in Extras

Originally Published: Jul 25, 2010 11:49 PM CDT

Gerald Goodridge
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

TULSA, Oklahoma -- An 11th-inning home run lifted the Arkansas Travelers to their first win of the four-game series over the Tulsa Drillers 7-6 Sunday.

Chris Malone (2-3) came in to relieve Bruce Billings and the first batter he faced – Nick Gorneault – sent a ball over the right field wall to give Arkansas (37-62) the lead. Steven Geltz (1-0) earned his first win of the season after striking out two and not allowing a hit in his inning of service.

Arkansas started the day the same way they finished it, with a solo home run.

With two outs on the board, Charlton Jimerson homered to center field in the first at-bat of the game to take a 1-0 lead. The Travelers added another run in the top of the second when Abel Nieves scored on an Alexi Amarista ground out.

Efren Navarro extended the lead to 3-0 with a home run in the first at-bat of the third inning. Three at-bats later, Andrew Romine scored on a Nick Gorneault single to center to take a four-run lead.

Tulsa (47-51) scored its first run of the game in the bottom of the fourth on a Kiel Roling leadoff home run.

A sacrifice fly and an RBI single in the top of the fourth inning extended the Travelers’ lead to 6-1.

Tulsa followed with five-unanswered runs to pull even, including a solo home run in the fourth and an RBI single in the eighth from Anthony Jackson.

After knotting the game at 6-6, the Drillers had runners in scoring position in both the ninth and 11th, but were unable to capitalize.

Tulsa will close out the series with Arkansas at 7:05 Monday before continuing its home stand with a three-game series against Northwest Arkansas Tuesday.