Playoff baseball arrived in Amarillo on Tuesday night. The Amarillo Sod Poodles and Midland RockHounds traded big swings and late-inning drama, but when the dust settled, Midland escaped with an 8-7 victory to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three South Division Series.
The RockHounds wasted no time getting on the board. In the top of the first, Leo De Vries jumped on a pitch and sent it out of the yard for a quick 1-0 lead. Midland kept pressing in the second when Nate Nankil delivered a two-run blast, stretching the advantage to 3-0 before many fans had settled into their seats.
Amarillo’s pitching troubles continued in the sixth. A wild pitch and errant throw opened the door for Clark Elliott to swipe a run, and just a few pitches later, Cole Conn drilled a triple to the gap for Midland’s fifth tally. Another wild pitch allowed Conn to score, giving the RockHounds what looked like a commanding 6-0 cushion.
But if this Sod Poodles team has shown anything all season, it’s fight. They finally broke through in the bottom of the seventh when Gavin Logan turned on a 1-1 offering and launched a two-run homer to left. The shot not only put Amarillo on the scoreboard but also breathed life back into the home crowd.
Midland answered with another De Vries RBI in the eighth, but the Sod Poodles weren’t going quietly. With two outs in their half of the inning, Gavin Conticello sent the Amarillo fans into a frenzy by crushing a three-run blast to dead center, suddenly cutting the deficit to 7-5.
The RockHounds tacked on a run in the ninth with a Conn RBI single, setting up a dramatic finish. Down 8-5, Amarillo rallied once again. Pinch-hitter Jean Walters sparked things with a single and later came around to score on LuJames Groover’s RBI knock. Ben McLaughlin followed with another run-scoring hit, putting the tying run just 90 feet away.
That set the stage for Jose Fernandez, who ripped a sharp grounder down the line that looked destined to tie the game. But Midland third baseman Josh Kuroda-Grauer made the defensive play of the night, diving to snag the ball and stepping on third for the game-ending out. The comeback bid fell just short, and Amarillo was left to wonder what could have been.
Despite the loss, the Sod Poodles showed resilience and power in the late innings — something they’ll need to carry with them into Game Two. The series now shifts to Midland, where Amarillo will look to even things up on Thursday night at 7:05 p.m.
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