Casey Anderson and Landon Sims Stay Hot, Walters almost hits for the Cycle

The Soddies got started early against the Texas League ERA leader Henry Baez. LuJames Groover drew a walk after falling behind 0-2, and Gavin Conticello drove him home with a triple to the right field corner. The three-bagger tied the outfielder with Jose Fernandez for the team lead in triples (4) and drove in his 43rd run of 2025. A Ryan Waldschmidt groundout would get Conticello home, giving Amarillo an early 2-0 lead. Like Conticello, the inning before, Jean Walters tripled to the corner in the second, scoring Caleb Roberts, giving Walters his first hit of the series and the Sod Poodles a 3-0 lead. After Conticello and Waldschmidt singled in the third, the newest position player for the Sod Poodles, Ben McLaughlin, drove in Conticello with a groundout, giving him an RBI in his first 3 games with Amarillo.

Roman Angelo weathered two early walks in the first inning, not allowing a run to score, and proceeded to retire the next 7 Rockhounds that came to the plate before allowing a third walk in the third inning. Angelo would then strike out the next two batters to clean up the walk. Midland would get on the board thanks to four singles, including one off the bat of Jared Dickey to make it 4-1 Amarillo. Angelo would escape the bases-loaded Midland threat by inducing a timely 6-4-3 double play to halt a Rockhounds rally.

Ryan Waldschmidt has torched Midland since he arrived at the Double-A level, collecting a pair of singles to bring his total to 10/30 against them this season. Walters continued his night with a solo shot to give Amarillo a 4-run lead in the fifth inning, putting him just a double away from the first Sod Poodles cycle in team history.

Casey Anderson

After 80 pitches of work in five 1-run innings, Roman Angelo would be replaced by Casey Anderson. Angelo walked three batters and struck out three, surrendering six singles on a night where he continuously worked himself out of trouble. That outing improved Angelo to a 1.80 ERA in his last three starts away from Hodgetown.

Anderson came in and allowed back to back singles, but then retired eight straight, including getting Midland to go 1-2-3 for the first time since the second inning in the seventh. The right hander would eventually go three scoreless innings, bringing his Double-A totals to: 9.0 IP / 8 H / 2 R / 1 ER / 0 BB / 12 K /1.00 ERA / 0.89 WHIP over three appearances. In a conversation with Jeremiah Boyd last week the catcher had this to say about the 6’4 right handed arm: “He’s electric. He has the ability to go really long, but I also think he’s got the ability to go in and shut the door if he needs to. He’s a sinker/sweeper guy. He’s got a cutter, but with that long length he gets the ball on you a little bit, so it’s 94 but plays more like 96." That combination has been extremely effective early, and the ability to not walk batters and go long has been something that this bullpen has needed since Luke Albright hit the IL and Alec Baker slid into the starting rotation. 

Landon Sims

Just like Anderson, Landon Sims has been extremely impressive recently. Sims in his last 10 appearances has not seen a runner cross the plate going: 9.1 IP /0.00 ERA - 0.96 WHIP, holding batters to 3/30 (.100 BAA) and pitching to a 7/6 strikeout/walk ratio. The reliever has been a major cog in the machine that continues to roll in the second half of the season and extend lead in the Texas League South. 

With Sims shutting the door the Sod Poodles took game three of the series 5-1, flipping the script after a 7-1 loss the night before. That win improves the Sod Poodles record to 22-14 and gives them a 6 game lead over Midland and more prescient over San Antonio.

The Sod Poodles are back in action tonight with Jimmy Endersby (2.48 ERA) on the mound and Gage Jump (1.96 ERA) on the other side for what should be an incredible pitching matchup.