The Amarillo Sod Poodles (37-27, 73-59) defeated the San Antonio Missions (27-37, 58-75), 7-6, on Tuesday night at HODGETOWN. Amarillo did its part, while Midland’s loss just minutes later secured the Texas League South Division second half title and a playoff appearance for the Soddies.
The San Antonio bats were attacking Soddies starter Mason Marriott early in counts in the top of the first inning. Two batters after a leadoff single by Kai Roberts on the first pitch of the game, Tirso Ornelas banged an RBI double off the top of the center field wall to open the scoring.
On the very next offering from Marriott, Romeo Sanabria grounded a ball sharply through the hole on the right side of the infield to plate Ornelas and double the Missions advantage. Amarillo’s offense was also ready from the very start, with Cristofer Torin providing an answer in the form of his 16th home run of the season to cut the deficit in half in the home half of the first.
After some loud outs against San Antonio starting pitcher Victor Lizarraga over the first and second innings, the Sod Poodles broke out against the right-hander in the bottom of the fourth. All nine batters in the lineup stepped up to the plate, beginning with a leadoff reached on error from Torin to set up Avery Owusu-Asiedu’s go-ahead, 483-foot bomb off the flag pole beyond center field.
The Soddies weren’t done in the frame just yet, as an Angel Ortiz double and base hit by Ben McLaughlin put runners on the corners with none out, allowing Ortiz to score the third run of the frame on a fielder’s choice. Lizarraga remained in the game for a fifth inning of work, where a two-out walk to Ortiz wound up hurting him when McLaughlin deposited a ball on the Bar 352 roof for a two-run shot to put the Soddies up 6-2.
Dawson Brown turned in 1.1 scoreless innings of relief before a clean fifth inning for John West, but both clubs would trade runs over the next three frames as the Soddies took a 7-4 lead into the seventh inning stretch.
