TULSA — Northwest Arkansas has seen enough of Bronson Sardinha and the Tulsa Drillers lately.
The Naturals continued their first-inning struggles Thursday, and Sardinha provided the decisive blow again for Tulsa to give the Drillers a 5-3 victory before an announced crowd of 6,403 at ONEOK Field.
Tulsa scored five runs in the first inning, including two on Sardinha’s sixth home run of the year, and held off the Naturals to win the threegame series and pull to within a half game of Northwest Arkansas in the Texas League North Division standings.
Sardinha, who is batting .397 with 4 home runs and 18 RBI in July, went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI Thursday after walking with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth to give Tulsa the game-winning run Tuesday. He went 4 for 8 with 3 RBI in the series.
The Drillers scored 11 firstinning runs in the series, including at least three in each game.
Northwest Arkansas held Tulsa scoreless after giving up five runs in the first inning Thursday. The Naturals scored two runs in the fourth inning and one more in the seventhbut were unable to complete the comeback bid.
Tulsa loaded the bases in the first inning after Sardinha’s home run off Aaron Crow, who allowed the final three runs of the inning on a basesloaded walk against Warren Schaeffer and a two-run singleby Radames Nazario.
Crow (7-7) settled in with three scoreless innings after that and finished with 5 strikeouts in his 4 innings but took the loss after yielding 5 runs, 5 hits and 6 walks.
Northwest Arkansas cut the Drillers’ lead to 5-2 with a two-run double by Tim Smith in the fourth inning. Chris Mc-Connell drove in the last Naturals run on a groundout in the seventh.
Brandon Sisk and Ben Swaggerty combined to pitch four scoreless innings of relief for the Naturals.
Naturals at a glance WHO NW Arkansas at Springfield WHEN 7:10 p.m. Central today WHERE Hammons Field, Springfield PITCHERS Northwest Arkansas: Alex Caldera (RHP, 3-1, 3.77 ERA); Springfield: Trey Hearne (RHP, 2-1, 3.77 ERA) RADIO KQSM-FM, 92.1 WEB SITE nwanaturals.comTHE WEEK AHEAD TODAY at Springfield, 7:10 p.m.
SATURDAY at Springfield, 6:10 p.m.
SUNDAY at Springfield, 5:10 p.m. (DH) MONDAY at Springfield, 7:10 p.m.
TUESDAY vs. Tulsa, 7 p.m.
WEDNESDAY vs. Tulsa, 7 p.m.
THURSDAY vs. Tulsa, 7 p.m.
x-Won first half division title THURSDAY’S GAMES Arkansas 4, Springfield 0 Tulsa 5, Northwest Arkansas 3 Midland 6, Frisco 0 Corpus Christi 15, San Antonio 7TODAY’S GAMES All times Central San Antonio at Frisco, 7 p.m.
Midland at Corpus Christi, 7:05 p.m.
Tulsa at Arkansas, 7:10 p.m.
NW Arkansas at Springfield, 7:10 p.m.
Sports, Pages 19 on 07/30/2010