Ty Langenberg inherited a lead and the part of the night Wichita had just begun trying to protect. By the end of the seventh, the Wind Surge were chasing a game that had moved almost entirely out of reach.
Wichita put together its best inning in the sixth and its last real push in the ninth, but Tulsa’s middle-inning answer was too much in an 8-6 loss Saturday at ONEOK Field. The Drillers scored once in the fifth, three times in the sixth and four more in the seventh, handing the Wind Surge their 10th straight loss.
The game had been set up for a different kind of ending. Riley Quick held Tulsa scoreless through four innings and was one out from getting through the fifth that way, too, before Sean McLain lifted a fly ball to left-center that kept carrying. What had looked like a manageable inning turned into a 1-0 Tulsa lead when McLain’s sixth homer left the park.
Still, Wichita’s response in the sixth was the kind of inning that can change the feel of a road game. Danny De Andrade opened it with a single, and after Quinn McDaniel struck out, Marek Houston drove a ball to left-center that bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double. Houston, who went 3-for-5 with a double and two runs, gave the top of the order its opening against Patrick Copen.
Caden Kendle turned it into a lead. His grounder got past the mound and toward second baseman Jake Gelof, bringing De Andrade home. Gelof’s throw to first went off line, and Houston kept coming from second to score as Kendle reached safely. In the span of one ball in play, Wichita had gone from down a run to ahead 2-1.
The Wind Surge added another when Khadim Diaw was hit by a pitch and Andrew Cossetti lined a single into center, scoring Kendle and moving Diaw to second. Cossetti finished 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI, and Wichita had a 3-1 lead with Quick in position for a win.
It did not last long. Quick opened the bottom of the sixth by walking Mike Sirota and Elijah Hainline, and Langenberg entered to face the heart of Tulsa’s order. Gelof lined a run-scoring single to left, Logan Wagner’s groundout brought in the tying run, and after a Joe Vetrano walk, McLain came through again. His grounder up the middle glanced off De Andrade’s glove, scoring Gelof and putting Tulsa back ahead, 4-3.
That was the first swing of the bullpen inning. The next one came in the seventh, after Langenberg got Kole Myers to fly out but walked Sirota and allowed a single to Hainline. Gelof followed with a line drive into left for a two-run double, pushing Tulsa’s lead to 6-3 and giving him three RBIs for the night.
Wagner made the inning heavier two batters later. After Gelof’s double, Wagner sent a fly ball to right that cleared the yard for a two-run homer, stretching the Drillers’ lead to 8-3. By then, Wichita’s sixth-inning lead had become a five-run deficit, and Langenberg’s line had settled at five earned runs over two innings with the loss and blown save.
The Wind Surge did keep coming. McDaniel walked to start the eighth against Kelvin Ramirez, Kendle singled, Diaw reached on a force out and Cossetti walked to load the bases. Garrett Spain drew another walk to force in McDaniel, trimming the deficit to 8-4, but Kyle DeBarge popped out in foul territory to leave the bases loaded. DeBarge still had two of Wichita’s 10 hits.
Luis Quiñones kept Tulsa where it was with a scoreless eighth, striking out one and working around Sirota’s two-out single. That gave Wichita one more opening.
Jaime Ferrer was hit by a pitch in the ninth, and after De Andrade struck out and McDaniel lined out, Houston singled to center. Kendle then ripped a 2-2 pitch into right-center, sharp enough that there was no play as Ferrer scored and Houston followed him home. Kendle’s double cut the lead to two and capped a 3-for-5 night with a double, three RBIs and a run.
Khadim Diaw walked to bring the tying run aboard, forcing Tulsa to go to Cam Day. Day got Cossetti on a soft grounder back to the mound, ending Wichita’s last push and closing out a game in which the Wind Surge had six runs on 10 hits and no errors, but not enough pitching in the innings that mattered most.