For six innings, Drew Beam kept Northwest Arkansas close enough for one swing to matter. Once the game reached the Naturals’ bullpen, Tulsa kept swinging — and a two-run deficit became a long, seven-run unraveling.
The Drillers scored in each of the final three innings Wednesday at Arvest Ballpark, pulling away for a 10-1 victory after Beam had limited them to three runs. James McArthur and Frank Mozzicato were charged with seven earned runs between them, while the Naturals’ offense managed only one hit and one walk after the third inning.
Beam took the loss to finish the season 9-11, but his six-inning line — three earned runs on five hits, five strikeouts and two walks — gave Northwest Arkansas a chance. The right-hander recovered from Josue De Paula’s first-inning home run and retired Tulsa in order in the third, fifth and sixth.
Northwest Arkansas answered De Paula almost immediately. Spencer Nivens singled with two outs in the bottom of the first, and Daniel Vazquez drove a ball over center fielder Kole Myers. It carried to the track, kicked off the wall and brought Nivens home easily, tying the game at 1.
Vazquez finished 1-for-3 with a double, a walk and the Naturals’ only RBI.
Logan Wagner supplied the damage Beam could not avoid. After Griffin Lockwood-Powell reached on a soft single in the fourth, Wagner sent a drive carrying toward the track in left-center. It cleared the wall for an opposite-field, two-run homer and a 3-1 Tulsa lead.
Beam responded by getting through the rest of the fourth without another run, then faced the minimum over his final two innings. The Naturals, however, never cut into the deficit. Their best early opportunity came in the third, when Alberto Rodriguez and Sam Kulasingam singled to put runners at the corners with one out. Alex Walsh entered and struck out Nivens before retiring Vazquez on a grounder.
Tulsa broke the game open with two outs in the seventh.
McArthur retired Wagner on a fly ball and struck out Elijah Hainline before Sean McLain lifted a high drive toward the home-run porch in left. That solo shot started a string of four Drillers reaching base. Jose Izarra and Taylor Young followed with singles, with Izarra scoring on Young’s grounder, and Anthony Simonelli entered before De Paula drove an RBI double to center.
McArthur was charged with three earned runs in two-thirds of an inning in his return to game action. The Naturals trailed 6-1 by the time the inning ended.
Connor Scott offered Northwest Arkansas an immediate opening in the bottom half. His drive down the left-field line skipped beyond De Paula, reached the warning track and sent Scott racing into third with a leadoff triple. He stayed there as a popup, a strikeout and a groundout ended the inning.
Scott’s third triple of the season was also the Naturals’ final hit.
The late innings belonged to Wagner and Tulsa. Wagner hammered his second home run of the night to left in the eighth, finishing 3-for-5 with two homers and a double. The Drillers hit four home runs overall.
Mozzicato’s trouble deepened in the ninth. He walked four consecutive batters, the last pass forcing in a run, before Brandon Johnson entered. Jake Gelof later bounced a drive over the wall in left-center for a two-run ground-rule double, completing the scoring. Mozzicato was charged with four earned runs in one inning and issued four walks.
What had been a competitive 3-1 game through six became a seven-run bullpen slide over the final three frames. Northwest Arkansas finished with five hits, left five runners aboard and went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position, falling to 56-76 overall and 27-38 in the second half.