By BARRY LEWIS Sports Writer on Sep 9, 2012, at 5:13 PM Updated on 9/09 at 6:06 PM
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New Tulsa Drillers pitcher Collin McHugh's 26th birthday on Wednesday was memorable as he was traded by the New York Mets ...
Roy Oswalt's four-week stint with the Tulsa Drillers ended on Tuesday when Colorado Rockies manager Walt Weiss announced ...
The Tulsa Drillers are back in the Texas League playoffs for the second consecutive year.
In a race where no team ...
If there was a most valuable player chosen for the Texas League's North Division finals, it would have to be Springfield outfielder Chris Swauger.
Swauger went 2-for-2 with two doubles, two runs scored and a RBI in a 3-1 victory that ended the Tulsa Drillers' season on a sunny Sunday afternoon at Hammons Field in Springfield, Mo.
Swauger also made a great tumbling catch in left field on Troy Tulowitzki's liner in the sixth inning. Swauger was removed for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the inning and returned to the dugout with his right arm in a sling. He may have suffered a broken collarbone. Swauger only returned off the disabled list two weeks ago after missing a month with a thumb injury.
Springfield captured the best-of-five series 3 games to 2 and advances to meet Frisco in the championship series starting Tuesday night at Hammons Field. Tulsa has not won a playoff series since 2002.
Swauger also was the hero in the series opener with a ONEOK Field-record three homers in an 8-6 comeback win as Springfield erased a 6-0 deficit.
Keith Butler also was a series star for Springfield as he saved all three games.
Tulsa's starting pitching has been great in the past month, but Sunday was an exception as all-star starter Dan Houston gave up three runs in four innings. Mike Marbry and Joe Torres combined for four perfect relief innings, but it proved too late.
Houston was outdueled by the Summit League's 2010 pitcher of the year, Boone Whiting, the Centenary product who allowed only one hit -- Corey Dickerson's RBI double in the third -- over seven innings. Whiting was making only his third Double-A start. He retired the last 11 batters he faced. Tulsa's only other hit was a ninth-inning single by Tulowitzki.
Lars Davis was the Drillers' leading hitter in the series as he went 4-for-13 with a homer. It was a tough series for Tulsa's Angelys Nina, who went only 3-for-19 after a hot final month and Ben Paulsen, who was only 1-for-16, but at least his lone hit was a big RBI single in Game 2.
Tulowitzki, on a rehab assignment from Colorado, only went 3-for-14.
-- Barry Lewis
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