Soddies by Morning: Amarillo Hammers the Hooks with a Hit Parade and Ray Continues to Crush May

With a little help from the Hooks, Amarillo jumped on top early and snapped their four game skid.

The Sod Poodles capitalized on 5 consecutive 2-out walks from Hooks pitching to begin the game. Corpus Christi's starter, Alex Santos II, issued 4 of those walks before being pulled early, managing only two outs in his appearance. Amarillo scored three runs in the first inning , in which every Sod Poodle batted, without recording a hit. 

Dylan Ray with some early run support delivered another strong performance on Thursday night. The Alabama right-hander pitched 6 innings, allowing three earned runs, one walk, and striking out seven in his fourth start of the month. Ray was exceptionally precise in the first two innings, throwing 17 strikes out of his first 20 pitches, including a perfect 10/10 in the first inning. He encountered difficulties in the third and fourth innings when the Hooks began hitting. Trevor Austin doubled, leading to the first of two sacrifice flies (one in the third and one in the fourth), and Edwin Diaz hit a home run to bring in another run. After these challenges, Ray regained his composure in the fifth and sixth innings, retiring the last six Hooks batters he faced. Ray maintained his impressive form in May, achieving his fourth consecutive quality start before handing the ball over to the bullpen after 87 pitches, with 59 being strikes. 

Gerardo Gutierrez and Conor Grammes teamed up for three innings, allowing four hits, walking four, and striking out five to secure the win against the Hooks in the last two innings. Gutierrez faced difficulties in his initial inning but escaped without any runs scored.

Jack Hurley kicked off the fourth inning with a solo home run, but Amarillo really picked up steam in the fifth. LuJames Groover hit a single, followed by Jose Fernandez, returning to the lineup, who drove him in with an RBI single. Ivan Melendez hit home runs in back-to-back games for the second time this season, smashing a 2-run homer tonight to boost Amarillo's lead in the fifth. Six Amarillo batters reached base at least twice, with Gavin Conticello and LuJames Groover reaching four times each. Amarillo hadn't scored 10 runs in a game since their loss to the Missions on April 24th until Drake Osborn's single brought in a run to surpass that mark in the seventh inning. Last night, every Sod Poodles player recorded a hit except for Tommy Troy, whose 13-game hitting streak ended.

The Sod Poodles will look to keep the bats hot to support Avery Short (5.06 ERA - 5.41 FIP), who is set to take the mound to kick off the weekend tonight. In Short's last outing, he performed well, pitching six innings, allowing only two earned runs, and striking out five without issuing any walks. Although not as dominant as Ray, Short has had an impressive May, recording a 2.76 ERA (3.93 FIP) over 16.1 innings, with 16 strikeouts and only 3 walks so far. Short isn't the hardest thrower in the world with his upper 80s fastball, a slider and a sinker that run about the same speed but give different looks to hitters, a cutter that hangs aound the low 80s, an upper 70s curveball, and a low 80s change up to round out the arsenal.

Joey Mancini (4.26 ERA - 3.85 FIP) will take the ball for Corpus Christi.

First Pitch: 7:05 PM