Joe Vetrano had already pulled Tulsa even once when the sixth inning found him again, this time with the Drillers holding their first lead and Wichita trying to keep the damage from becoming something larger.
It became something larger in a hurry.
Vetrano drove a three-run homer into the right-field bullpen in the sixth inning, his second home run of the night and the swing that pushed Tulsa from a one-run edge toward a 7-4 win over the Wind Surge on Friday night at ONEOK Field.
The Drillers trailed twice, tied the game twice and then used a five-run sixth to turn a 2-2 game into a 7-2 cushion. Vetrano finished 3-for-4 with two home runs and four RBIs, making him the center of a night that started as a back-and-forth game and ended with Tulsa’s offense finally forcing Wichita’s bullpen to crack.
Wichita struck first in the second against Christian Zazueta. Andrew Cossetti singled with one out, and Jaime Ferrer followed by sending a fly ball down the right-field line that carried into the corner. Jose Izarra had a long run toward the wall, but the ball got down and Cossetti came around from first to score on Ferrer’s double.
Vetrano answered in the third with Tulsa’s first hit, lifting a fly ball the other way down the left-field line. Caden Kendle chased it toward the wall, but it kept carrying and cleared the fence to tie the game at 1.
That became the pattern for the middle innings. Cossetti put Wichita back in front in the fourth, driving his 18th homer to left-center off Zazueta. Tulsa pulled even again in the fifth after Kole Myers singled, Josue De Paula moved him to third with a single and Griffin Lockwood-Powell sent a sacrifice fly deep enough to right for Myers to tag and score.
Zazueta gave the Drillers the chance to wait out that kind of game. He worked six innings, allowed two earned runs, struck out seven and did not walk a batter. After Cossetti’s homer and Kyle DeBarge’s bunt single in the fourth, Zazueta retired the final seven batters he faced, ending his night by striking out Brandon Winokur and Garrett Spain in the sixth.
That shutdown inning mattered because Tulsa’s lineup finally got to Darren Bowen in the bottom half.
Taylor Young and Elijah Hainline opened the sixth with walks, and Logan Wagner followed with a sharp single to right that scored Young and gave Tulsa its first lead. It was Wagner’s second hit of the night, part of a 2-for-4 game with an RBI and a run.
Then Vetrano changed the inning from a rally into the game’s defining turn. With Hainline at third and Wagner at first, he lined a ball to right that carried over Spain and into the bullpen. What had been a 3-2 Tulsa lead was suddenly 6-2, and Vetrano had his 12th homer of the season to go with the opposite-field shot that got the Drillers started.
Bowen got one out after the homer but walked Myers, and Wichita went to Kyle Bischoff. De Paula greeted him with a drive to right-center that bounced on the warning track and out of play for a ground-rule double, bringing Myers home for the fifth run of the inning and a 7-2 lead.
Myers reached base four times, going 1-for-2 with three walks and two runs. De Paula went 2-for-4 with a double, a walk and an RBI, another useful piece in an inning that moved through the order and made Wichita pay for the free baserunners.
The Wind Surge did make the finish tighter. In the eighth, Myles Caba walked Graham Brown before Marek Houston drove a two-run homer to left-center, cutting Tulsa’s lead to 7-4. Caba recovered by striking out the next three hitters, including Cossetti, who had been Wichita’s best bat at 2-for-3 with a homer, a walk and a run.
Lucas Wepf took it from there. He struck out Kyle DeBarge to open the ninth, got Ferrer on a grounder to first and finished the game with Danny De Andrade grounding to Logan Wagner at third.
Wepf’s scoreless ninth gave him his third save and sealed a clean defensive night for Tulsa, which finished with nine hits and no errors. Wichita had six hits and no errors, but the Wind Surge’s two leads both disappeared, and their best chance to hold the game together went with Vetrano’s second swing.