Sod Poodles storm back from 9 down before Robinson walked it off

Wednesday night felt like a walk-off, but the Hodgetown crowd got the real deal on Thursday night.

What would turn into a game of a lifetime started out slow for the Soddies. Ian Moeller crushed a 2-Out 3-Run shot off of Roman Angelo in the second inning, giving Frisco an early lead. In the fifth inning, Sebastian Walcott, the Rangers' top prospect and the fourth-ranked prospect in all of baseball, hit his third home run of the year at Hodgetown and first since his last trip to Amarillo in May, increasing the Roughriders' lead to 6-2.

The Frisco eighth looked like a knockout punch. The Roughriders put up four runs without an extra base hit, pushing the lead to 11-2 Frisco with Amarillo down to her last 6 outs of the night. 

LuJames Groover singled for his second hit of the night to start the eighth, then Ryan Waldschmidt did what he does best in the box. He made Avery Weems work, and gave it a ride.

“​​Tonight I was getting a lot of offspeed pitches, so it was a 3-2 count and he threw me another cutter. Just trying to stay in the middle of the field. 
I feel like there've been a couple of at bats where I've felt my weight coming off the ball, so I just wanted to stay towards the middle. He hung me a cutter.” Waldschmidt said of the at bat that careened of the wall in left center field.”I knew what wind we had and 
I got it up in the air. I thought I had a chance, but I knew to make sure not to pass Gino (Groover) at first, because he's probably hanging out there, just making sure it's dropping. As soon as I saw it drop, it just hit it into second gear and tried to get to third.”

Waldschmidt didn’t just make it to third, but made it all the way home after a bad throw cut the Frisco lead to 11-4. Amarillo would continue to chip away, adding two more runs before the end of the eighth.

Eli Saul worked around a pair of walks to freeze Frisco in the top half of the ninth and give Amarillo a shot.

In the ninth inning, with the game hanging in the balance, Javier Colina used the entire bench. Ivan Melendez, last night's hero, was the first to pinch hit and managed a broken-bat single that brought in two runs. After sitting out all night, Kristian Robinson pinch ran for Melendez, adding some speed to the basepaths. The last player from the Sod Poodles bench was Gavin Conticello, who singled to tie the game after being down by nine runs earlier in the night. 

Waldschmidt would once again come through with a game tying sacrifice fly following Frisco taking back the lead earlier in the 10th, extending the game one more frame.

Frisco's Gerardo Carrillo forced a groundout from Christian Cerda, and Frisco manager Carlos Cardoza intentionally walked Caleb Roberts, who was now playing catcher for the first time since 2022 after all of the shuffling, to get to Kristian Robinson. On the Bahamas Independence Day and his fellow countryman Sebastian Walcott homering earlier in the game, Robinson didn't waste a second leaving his mark on the game. The outfielder took the first pitch and put a bow on the nine run comeback, lacing a single up the middle and was met with a shower from his teammates.

"I was just trying to get something over the plate, really. Not much of a game plan there, just hit it off, put it in play, and see what happens." Robinson said postgame. “That kind of caught me off hard, but I guess that's the point. 
That's what's fun about this game one second I was just spectating and watching it as a reserve, then in a second I'm up with the winning run.”

The Sod Poodles got a huge night from Tommy Troy who made his professonal debut in the outfield. Troy went 3/6 falling just a home run short of the cycle. Jose Fernandez posted his second game of at least 3-hits in the series

The Sod Poodles have now won seven of their last ten and continue to hold first first place in the Texas League South. Jimmy Endersby will