Ivan Melendez Walks Off Wichita to Start the Party, Soddies Come Back From 5 Down to Win Game One

The first-place Amarillo Sod Poodles started out the homestand with a party late on Tuesday night. The Wichita Wind Surge entered Bomb City red hot, just like Amarillo, and it led to a showdown fitting of just that. 

Outside of a single inning for each team, there wasn’t a whole lot of action for the offenses early. For Amarillo, the Soddies found their runs on the back of a passed ball and a fielder's choice to score from Jose Fernandez and Christian Cerda. As for Wichita, it was the Walker Jenkins show early and often. The Twins' #1 Prospect and the #12 Prospect in all of baseball (according to MLB Pipeline) opened the game's hit column with a double in the first before smashing his third home run of 2025 in the third inning, going back to back with Gabriel Gonzalez. Jenkins would have three legs of the cycle in the first five innings with a single in the fifth, but despite multiple hard-hit balls to the track, that would be his final hit of the night. Wichita would tke

The Sod Poodles found themselves down 8-3 after Wichita found their rhythm with 8 players reaching base in the seventh, highlighted by Twins #4 Prospect Kaelen Culpepper’s 2-RBI double off Eli Saul, which gave the Wind Surge some breathing room late in the contest with a 5-run inning.

Like they have for most of the second half, Amarillo responded with their own haymaker. Tommy Troy and LuJames Groover led off the inning with a pair of singles before Ryan Waldschmidt recorded his second consecutive multi-RBI game with a 2-run single, shrinking the deficit to 8-5 Wichita. Christian Cerda reached on a hard-hit ball that was ruled an error, scoring Waldschmidt and finding the catcher at third base before Ivan Melendez blooped a single near the line in right field, giving Amarillo their own 4-run inning.

Jhosmer Alvarez held strong for 1.2 innings after Baker gave Amarillo 4.0, giving their batterymate Christian Cerda the oppertunity to tie the game at 3 with a solo shot in the sixth.

Conor Grammes has found his groove lately, coming into the game and working a scoreless eighth to keep the game at 8-3. One of the newest Sod Poodles Dan Kubiuk was not phased by Hodgetown, the right handed reliever from Northwestern worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning on eight pitches (six strikes) to take the Sod Poodles to their half of the ninth inning.

Gavin Conticello worked a walk to get on base, giving Jose Fernandez the chance to do what he's done best all season and drive runners in scoring position in, knocking in Conticello with a clutch double to tie the game. On the brink of extra innings, Ivan Melendez after cutting the lead to 8-7 earlier stepped to the plate with a chance to make some magic.

“I was just trying not to miss the heater in that type of situation.” He didn’t. Melendez crushed the first pitch for his first professional walk-off home run 402 feet into the left field bleachers sending the remaining Sod Poodles fans and the dugout into a frenzy. “I knew it wasn't going to hook foul because it had like true backspin. Once I saw it stay fair for a while, then that's kind of when I got excited and did what I did.” 

Melendez slammed the bat to celebrate the win and his 50th home run in a Sod Poodles uniform, extending his own record, but the first baseman and the Soddies know the current mission and they have their eyes on the prize.

“The camaraderie in the clubhouse, everybody's just kind of playing for each other, trying to pass the bat. Everyone's not trying to get their own individual stats. 
We're all trying to win. We all know we have a chance to play in the playoffs so that’s what we're trying to do.”

The Sod Poodles remain in first place in the Texas League South and will try to stay over .500 for the first time all season tonight in game two against the Wind Surge.