Frankie Montas, Zach Walters lead OKC to victory

The upper levels of the minor leagues won on Saturday as Oklahoma City and Tulsa both won, while Rancho and Great Lakes lost.

Player of the day

Zach Walters has spent time in the big leagues over the last few seasons, but so far in 2016 he's been stuck in Oklahoma City. On Saturday he had one of his best games of the year with four hits, including two doubles and and a couple of RBI's.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Frankie Montas continued his strong rehab run as he and player of the day Zach Walters led OKC to a 7 - 1 win over the Express (Rangers) on Saturday. Montas allowed three base runners over 2 1/3 frames and did not permit a run while striking out three. Luis Avilan got the final two outs of the third inning, then Jeremy Kehrt permitted just one run over the final six frames to record the win.

At the dish Walters had four hits and drove in a pair of runs, while O'Koyea Dickson's late homer added some insurance for the Dodgers. Charlie Culberson, Micah Johnson, and Anton Richardson all had a couple of hits each to assist the offense in the victory.

Double-A Tulsa

Tulsa plated the winning run in the top of the ninth as the Drillers defeated the RockHounds (A's) 4 to 3. The winning rally started two outs into the ninth when Willie Calhoun, who had homered earlier in the game, walked. Cody Bellinger followed with a single, then Lars Anderson plated the final score with the winning hit. For both Bellinger and Anderson it was their third hits of the game, while Brandon Trinkwon also contributed earlier with his third long ball of the season.

On the mound starter Tim Shibuya didn't make it through the fourth inning, but a trio of relievers followed with solid relief. Joe Broussard tossed 2.1 shutout frames, then Ralston Cash threw a couple of scoreless innings to record the win. Caleb Dirks then picked up his third save of the season with a perfect ninth

Class-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Quakes allowed four runs in the fourth and couldn't rebound as Rancho fell to the 66ers (Angels) 5 to 4. Starter Grant Holmes made it through the first three frames without any issues, but in the fourth he got into trouble with a walk, a hit batter, and a couple of hits allowed which saddled him with the loss. Bubby Rossman and Jeff Malm were impressive in relief as they combined for five strikeouts over the final three frames.

Rancho had just two extra base hits in this game, with one being a two-run homer by Erick Mejia. Ninth batter Jordan Tarsovich also knocked in a couple of runs thanks to a 2-for-4 effort that included a triple.

Class-A Great Lakes

Dennis Santana fell to 0 and 7 despite his 2.77 ERA as Great Lakes lost to Lake County (Indians) 4 to 1. Santana gave up just one earned run over six innings as his hard luck season continued, punching out four to keep the 20 year old's strikeout rate and more than a strikeout per inning. Marcus Crescenti permitted a couple of runs in relief to make sure the game was out of reach.

On offense Jake Henson connected on his first homer of the year in the ninth inning, but other than that the Loon hitters were mostly irrelevant. Omar Estevez had a couple of singles to round out the base knocks for Great Lakes.

Transactions

Triple-A: Josmar Cordero and Matt West were activated from the DL, while Joe Thatcher was released. Class-A: Pin-Chieh Chen was placed on the DL while Edwin Rios was promoted from Great Lakes. Isaac Anderson was activated from the DL to take the spot of Rios.

Saturday Scores

Oklahoma City 7, Round Rock 1

Tulsa 4, Midland 3

Inland Empire 5, Rancho Cucamonga 4

Lake County 4, Great Lakes 1

Sunday Schedule

11:05 a.m. - Lake County (Shao-Ching Chiang) at Great Lakes (Issac Anderson)

12:00 p.m. - Tulsa (Chase De Jong) at Midland (Chris Jensen)

2:05 p.m. - Inland Empire (TBD)  at Rancho Cucamonga (Yasiel Sierra)

5:05 p.m. - Oklahoma City (Zach Lee) at Round Rock (TBD)