Travelers’ Walton familiar with Tulsa

Donnie Walton may have left Tulsa, but Tulsa is slow to disappear from Walton’s life.

Walton graduated from Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa and, as an infielder for Oklahoma State University, he played several games at ONEOK Field, which is the home of the Texas League’s Tulsa Drillers.

“When I left college, I thought I had played my last game in Oklahoma,” said Walton, who has spent the majority of 2019 as the leadoff batter for the Arkansas Travelers. “But then I got picked up by the [Seattle] Mariners organization, and well, it wasn’t over.”

Walton will have at least one more experience with Tulsa. The Travelers and Drillers will meet in the best-of-five North Division playoff series, which starts tonight at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock. The series moves to Tulsa on Friday after the Travs host a second game Thursday.

“It’s the best time of the year,” Walton said. “It’s a special feeling to be involved in the playoffs, and it’s even more special to me that it’s against Tulsa. It will be cool playing in front of family and friends.”

Walton put together a memorable season. He finished second in the Texas League in hits (144), belted 11 home runs and drove in 50. He led the Travelers in runs scored (72) and finished the season

batting .300.

“It’s always a goal,” Walton said. “You want to be known as a .300 hitter, but you don’t want your entire focus on that. You try not to look at the scoreboard.”

Walton finished the season with a flourish to achieve the .300 mark, batting .462 (6 of 13) in his last three games. After getting hits in two of his first four at-bats in the Travelers’ next-to-last game of the season, the team’s coaches removed him from the game to ensure Walton would finish the regular season with a .300 average. He did not play in the Travelers’ regular-season finale Monday.

“I knew something was up when they took me out,” Walton said. “I wanted to keep playing. [Sunday] was a close game, and we wound up winning it in the ninth.

“It was something they wanted to do for me. I couldn’t have had the success I’ve had this year without my coaches and teammates. They’ve been a huge part of my success.”

Arkansas (81-57) finished with the best record in the Texas League. Tulsa (78-61) had the second-best record and held a winning record over every team with the exception of the Travelers. Arkansas won 21 of 30 games played against Tulsa, and 12 of the 15 games played at ONEOK Field.

Although the Travelers dominated the series, the two teams have not seen each other in more than two months. Their last game against each other came on June 30.

“It’s almost like we’re facing a new team,” Walton said. “Obviously there are some guys we’re familiar with, but both teams have had players move up during the course of the season. There’s still a lot of talent on both teams, and it should be a good matchup, but there’s no real advantage.”