The Tulsa Drillers scored three runs in the second inning and five runs in the fifth in beating the Northwest Arkansas Naturals 8-2 before an announced crowd of 8,168 fans at ONEOK Field in Tulsa.
The Naturals took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Mitch Canham singled in Orlando Calixte. The Drillers answered in the second when Kiel Roling hit a threerun home run, scoring Kyle Parker and Henry Wrigley, to make it 3-1.
The Naturals trimmed the margin to 3-2 in the fourth after Canham tripled to right-center field and scored on Yem Prades’ single.
In the fifth, Jaron Shepherd singled up the middle, and Angelys Nina reached on a fielding error by Naturals third baseman Angel Franco, moving Shepherd to second. Joey Wong doubled to right field to score Shepherd. Kent Matthes followed with a double to left-center field to score Nina and Wong. Parker singled to left, moving Matthes to third.
Wrigley reached on another error by Franco, scoring Matthes.
After Parker moved to third on a wild pitch, he scored on Roling’s sacrifice fly.
Roling led the Drillers by going 2 for 3 with 4 RBI and scored 1 run. Chad Bettis (2-1) picked up the victory for the Drillers, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits in 5 innings with 4 strikeouts and no walks.
Sugar Ray Marimon (1-3)took the loss for the Naturals, giving up 8 runs - 4 earned - in 42/3 innings with 3 strikeouts and 2 walks.
Canham led the Naturals by going 2 for 4, scoring 1 run and driving in 1.
Sports, Pages 17 on 04/30/2013