Drifters Can’t Overcome Early Deficit in 5-3 Loss to Knights
(Photo by Alyssa Garcia)
By Addison Cerezo
SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Drifters (13-23, 10-17) saw their 4-game win streak come to a close Sunday afternoon, falling to the Corvallis Knights (19-17, 15-12) 5-3 in the series finale. Good pitching performances from Springfield were overshadowed by an offense that couldn’t get the fatal blow.
Heading into Sunday's game, the Drifters came into a game looking to sweep the Corvallis Knights for the first time in team history. Friday’s 10-1 victory saw the Drifters break a home losing streak against Corvallis that dated back to June 2022. An 11-0 shutout of the Knights on Saturday gave Springfield high hopes for Sunday.
After scoring just one run in the previous 18 innings, Corvallis broke out of its team-wide slump in the top of the first inning, taking a 2-0 lead on a home run by Ethan Porter that barely cleared the center-field wall.
The third inning saw Corvallis extend its lead, effectively ending starter Trey Thompson’s day. But the inning wasn’t a loss by any measure, as Drew Miller needed just two pitches to get the final two outs of the inning.
“Drew does what he’s supposed to do,” second-year skipper Jeff Lyle said. “Every day, we know that if we can get to Drew, he’s gonna give us a chance.”
The momentum from Miller’s efficiency on the mound certainly carried over into the home half of the third, with four of the first five batters reaching base. Hunter Meyer smacked his second RBI double in as many days to put the Drifters on the board, extending his hit streak to eight games in the process. Meyer finished 2-for-5 with a double, raising his batting average to .333 on the summer.
“He’s one of the more prepared hitters that we have,” Lyle said. “It shows when he goes to the plate. He’s got a good plan, and he’s not scared to get a swing off early.”
After two more batters reached base safely, Johnny Elliott helped the Drifters add another run on a sacrifice fly to dead center, scoring Meyer from third and cutting the lead to one.
Both offenses stagnated for a bit as Miller made way for the new Drifter, Colin Gebler, after a fantastic outing. Miller finished his day pitching 2.2 innings, allowing just three hits while striking out two.
In his Drifters debut, Gebler faced just four batters, retiring two of them, before departing the game and giving the newest Drifter, Gabe Howard, his team debut as well. Howard dominated, striking out two while recording four outs without allowing a baserunner.
“I love anybody that’ll put up a zero,” Lyle remarked. “Gebler had a little traffic, but was able to dig down and get out of it, and Howard’s just got unbelievable tempo and rhythm.”
Through all of this, the Drifters' offense went quiet, managing just one hit per inning in the fourth, fifth, and seventh innings, going down in order in the sixth inning.
The eighth inning proved to be different for the Drifters’ offense. After Corvallis scored another run in the top of the eighth, Cooper Mullens connected on a one-out single and advanced to second on a balk moments later. The runner in scoring position made Nolan Miller’s eyes light up, as he came in to the day hitting .288 with runners on base. Miller promptly hit a deep drive to left field for a double, scoring Mullens from second and bringing the winning run to the plate. But with two outs, the late comeback was foiled on a stellar grab from the Knights’ right fielder.
Another run came across for the Knights in the ninth inning, dashing the Drifters’ hopes of a late comeback.
The WCL All-Star Game will take place at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 15th, at Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The game will be live streamed on MLB.com, MLB.tv, the MLB app and the Victoria HarbourCats YouTube channel. Drifters lefty Michael Klein is making the trip to Victoria as Springfield’s lone representative.