Five Arkansas pitchers gave up 15 hits Sunday night against the Tulsa Drillers, but the Travelers still managed to earn a split of the four-game series with the help of four Drillers errors and a ninth-inning home run.
Mike Bianucci's two-run home run in the ninth inning turned out to be the game-winner when the Drillers scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth before Jairo Diaz struck out Trevor Story with the tying run on third base to preserve the Travs' 9-8 victory at ONEOK Field in Tulsa.
The Travs evened their season record to 50-50 after falling behind three different times before scoring five consecutive runs heading into the ninth inning.
Tulsa's four errors led to four unearned runs for the Travs, who were outhit 15-10.
Tulsa took a 6-4 lead with two runs in the bottom of the fifth before Kaleb Cowart walked and eventually scored on an error in the sixth for the Travs, then they took a 7-6 lead in the eighth on RBI singles from Anderson De La Rosa and Eric Stamets.
Bianucci's seventh home run this season -- all away from Dickey-Stephens Park -- put the Travs up 9-6 before Diaz let the Drillers back in it in the ninth. Diaz gave up a leadoff double to Joey Wong, a single to Delta Cleary, Jr., and Wong scored on a wild pitch. Cleary scored on a groundout by Tyler Massey to make it 9-8. Ryan Casteel then singled, advanced to second on a Cowart throwing error and to third on a wild pitch.
Diaz struck out Story to end the game to earn his second save.
Sports on 07/21/2014