Valera, Pages Lead Drillers in Saturday Win
September 11, 2022 – Texas League (TL) – Tulsa Drillers News Release
FRISCO, TX – The Tulsa Drillers offense was in full force, scoring double-digit runs for the second consecutive game on Saturday night. Leonel Valera and Andy Pages led the Drillers offense as they combined to drive in eight runs in a 10-7 win over the Frisco RoughRiders at Riders Field.
Tulsa carried a 7-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh, but Frisco rallied for five runs to tie the game. However, the Drillers offense answered as Pages delivered the go-ahead two-RBI double in the eighth and one more run in the ninth to claim the win.
The victory helped Tulsa secure the season series over Frisco as the Drillers are now 7-4 against the RoughRiders this season with only one game left.
Both squads traded solo home runs for the first runs of the night. The second batter of the game for Frisco, Aaron Zavala, homered to right center field on the first pitch of the at-bat and Pages led off the second inning with his 24th blast of the year.
The Drillers added two more runs in the second inning to take a 3-1 lead. With one out, Valera singled and Justin Yurchak walked to set up Ryan Ward, who singled to right, bringing Valera home. Yurchak scored on Pages’ sacrifice fly.
The Drillers increased their lead in the fourth inning when Valera hit a two-out RBI single to put Tulsa up 4-1.
The RoughRiders scored their second run of the contest in the fourth inning without the benefit of a hit. Trevor Hauver earned a leadoff walk against Nick Nastrini and advanced to second base on a groundout and to third on a flyout. Hauver then scored on a wild pitch to give Frisco its second run.
Valera’s big night was capped off in the sixth inning when he increased the Drillers lead to 7-2 with a three-run homer.
Gus Varland struck out the side in the sixth inning before Frisco worked to tie the game in the seventh inning. Varland returned for the seventh but could not make it out of the inning as four singles by the RoughRiders plated two runs. Tanner Dodson then took the mound, and the first batter he faced, Blaine Crim, tied the game with his three-run blast.
The Drillers re-took the lead in the eighth. Tulsa earned two baserunners on two walks, and Pages plated both with a double, putting Tulsa ahead 9-7.
Yurchak gave Tulsa an insurance run in the ninth inning with an RBI single that scored Jeren Kendall as the Drillers increased their lead to 10-7.
Jordan Leasure recorded the final five outs as he held the RoughRiders scoreless to earn his fourth save this season.
TEXAS LEAGUE STANDINGS * TEXAS LEAGUE SCOREBOARD
HIGHLIGHTS AND HAPPENINGS:
*The Drillers have outscored Frisco 35-16 in Tulsa’s three wins this week.
*Drillers starter Nastrini allowed only one hit in five strong innings in his fifth start for Tulsa. The Los Angeles Dodgers #12 ranked prospect struck out six.
*Dodson collected the win and is now 4-0 on the season. The University of California product allowed his first earned run in nine games since returning from the Dodgers Arizona Complex.
*With his walk in the second, Yurchak increased his on-base streak to 23 straight games. In August and September, Yurchak has reached base 57 times, earning 39 hits, 17 walks and one hit by pitch for a .320 batting average and a .407 on-base percentage during that span.
*Tulsa set a new season high in stolen bases by swiping eight bags in the game, led by Kendall’s three.
UP NEXT:
The Drillers will continue their series in Frisco on Sunday afternoon with the final game of six against the RoughRiders. Starting time is set for 4:05 p.m. and the starting pitchers are yet to be announced.
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