Drifters Cash in on Walla Walla Walks in 11-5 Win

(Photo by Alyssa Garcia)

By Henry Light

SPRINGFIELD – After run support came too late to salvage game one on Tuesday, Drifters Head Coach Jeff Lyle said the series hinged on putting more traffic on the bases. Two nights later, Springfield (11-22, 8-16) responded in droves to win the series against Walla Walla (20-16, 15-12) thanks to a 13-walk, eight-hit performance that propelled the Drifters to an 11-5 win in the rubber match on Thursday night, giving the team their second series win of the season. 

“We’ve been talking about doing the punching first, but it’s not always gonna happen that way,” Lyle said. “To respond the way we did in the middle innings, making the most we possibly could of the traffic we had and a little bit of a sloppy game for them was huge.”

Preston Armstrong paced the Drifters' offense, going 1-for-1 with four walks — two on 10 pitches — and scoring three runs in the six-run victory.

“I saw what we know Preston can be,” Lyle said. “He came off a pretty tough injury at the end of his freshman year, so just timing and things haven’t been great for him lately, but it’s been getting better daily, and that’s proof of it right there.”

Tristan Ledbetter, who came into the game with a stellar 2.08 ERA, struggled early as the Sweets pushed across three runs in the first two innings. But after the first two frames, the uncommitted prospect out of Umpqua Community College settled in to post consecutive 1-2-3 innings in the third and fourth innings, allowing the Drifters' offense to strike back in the bottom of the fourth. 

Cooper Mullens led off the inning with a hard-hit groundball single, before Armstrong and Nolan Miller walked to load the bases. Jaycob Villalpando then put Springfield on the board with a grounder through the left side, before a hit-by-pitch made the score 3-2.

Ledbetter’s previously rocky outing ended with a proof of concept for the right-hander’s mentality. Lacking his best stuff early on, Ledbetter put a third consecutive zero on the board in the fifth inning, finishing without a strikeout but working around two hits and three walks.

“He’s had to throw a lot of innings this year, and for him to go out after that first inning and get us through five was huge for us and huge for the bullpen,” Lyle said.

Thanks to another flurry of walks in the fifth inning — including Armstrong’s second ten-pitch walk of the game — Springfield’s lead ballooned to 6-3 by the end of the inning, aided by an error, two walks, and a fielder’s choice. 

“I was just trying to see fastball and adjust from there, but I ended up stringing together some great at-bats, and I left it all on the field,” Armstrong said.

Springfield’s offensive onslaught continued in the sixth inning, with Miller smoking an RBI single up the middle and Johnny Elliot skying a sacrifice fly to right-center field, scoring two more runs.

The Sweets scratched across a run in the seventh inning, although recent addition Ezra James punched out two batters in two solid relief innings. The Drifters responded in the bottom of the inning with consecutive line-drive RBI singles by Mullens and Armstrong.

“It felt great to finally get a barrel on the ball after all those walks, but I’m just in love with the grind, getting back to it, and I’m excited to play again tomorrow,” Armstrong said. 

“We have a motto for them that we don’t think there’s a lot of guys in the league that can beat us if we stay in the zone and don’t chase pitches,” Lyle said. “So tonight, we were trying to get our ‘A swing’ off early in the zone, and if we didn’t, we were patient enough to take a walk.”

First pitch for the home series opener against Corvallis is set for 6:35 p.m. The game will be streamed on the Drifters’ YouTube channel.

Friday’s game is the Drifters annual Babe Ruth Night at the ballpark. Eugene/Springfield area Babe Ruth players and coaches will get free general admission tickets and be honored on the field for Babe Ruth Night.