Drillers' Hot Streak Continues With Offensive Explosion

Originally Published: Jul 15, 2010 11:5 PM CDT

Corey DeMoss
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

TULSA, Oklahoma – The Tulsa Drillers continued their torrid pace with a 17-2 blasting of the Arkansas Travelers Thursday to climb within one win of the .500 mark.

The Drillers (43-44) have won 14 of their last 17 games dating back to June 24, when they were 12 games below .500. They put an exclamation point on that hot streak with their most explosive offensive performance of the season.

The Travelers (33-56) took the lead with a run in the top of the second on an RBI double by Anel De Los Santos, but it was all Tulsa from there. The Drillers scored five runs in the bottom of the inning, capped off by a grand slam from Charles Blackmon.

Tulsa continued to lean on the long ball in the following innings, with Kiel Roling hitting a two-run bomb in the third and Bronson Sardinha launching another two-run homer in the fourth to give the Drillers a 9-0 lead.

Arkansas managed to add another run in the top of the seventh, but the Drillers responded with even more fireworks in the bottom of the frame.

Wilin Rosario led off with a home run, and seven Drillers followed by reaching base and driving in a total of five more runs. Rosario finished the scoring with a two-run double in his second at-bat of the inning, giving Tulsa eight runs in the inning and a 15-run win.

The Travelers were forced to use five different pitchers, two of which did not last a full inning. Tim Kiely (4-6) was credited with the loss after giving up seven runs in four innings. Keith Weiser (7-5) held Arkansas to six hits in seven innings and earned the win.

The teams will continue their four-game series at 7:05 p.m. Friday.