Soddies by Morning: Sod Poodles Sweep the Weekend in Tulsa

Friday: AMARILLO 6 TULSA 5

A pair of second inning doubles off the bat of Manuel Pena and Caleb Roberts helped give Amarillo an early lead in game four, trailing the series 2-1 coming in. Logan Clayton took the hill for the first time as a starter this year for Amarillo on Friday night. The Sod Poodles got three strong innings from the right hander, before Tulsa finally broke through with a Noah Miller solo shot. Tulsa would load the bases and add two more, but in a situation that could have been a lot worse and put the game out of reach, Clayton found a way out of the inning to keep that damage to just three runs.

Trailng 3-2 Amarillo would respond with a three-run inning of their own, loading the bases after some Tulsa fielding mishaps once again in the series benefited the Soddies. Alfred Morillo came into the game and gave arguably his best Double-A appearance so far, with a two inning and three strikeout outing to hold the score. Christian Cera had the biggest swing of the entire evening, Cerda sent a 2-2 pitch from Jeisson Cabrera sailiing into the Oklahoma sky, giving Amarillo the lead for one of the bigger moments of the year.

Like Morillo, recent addition Hayden Durke would do his best work of the season striking out a pair of Drillers to close out the first victory of the weekend.

Saturday: AMARILLO 6 TULSA 4

Jose Cabrera started the game by retiring the first two Tulsa batters, before walking the next four he faced, putting Tulsa out front. Despite those command issues early and another long inning in the second totaling 24 pitches, Cabrera would manage to buckle down like Clayton a day earlier and gut his way through four innings. The starter gave up four runs, on four hits, a season high six walks and two strikeouts, but only gave up one extra base hit on the evening.

Gavin Conticello would double giving him another hit in a series that he would finish with a .300/.417/.550/.967 slash coming into his birthday week. Ivan Melendez would get Amarillo on the board by driving in Conticello for his 22nd RBI of the season against Jared Karros.

Alec Baker fresh off of his great start on Tuesday returned to his normal role in the pen and continued his success, kicking off a great night for the bullpen, posting a two inning and three strikeout perfomance mirroring Morillo's magic a night earlier.

Amarillo would do their damage in the fifth inning, with Kristian Robinson demolishing a 2-1 pitch from Karros to left field for a two run blast. Amarillo wasn't done yet, Tommy Troy tanked one of his own two pitches later, making it the first time that that particular pair has gone back to back this year. Jesus Valdez would join the power party in the seventh inning for his third home run of 2025 to push the lead to 6-4 Amarillo.

The bullpen would do the rest. After Baker, Zane Russell and Landon Sims gave great performances of their own, going a combined three innings, surrendering one hit, and striking out six, five coming from Sims who closed out the night for a second straight Soddies win and his second save of the season.

Sunday: AMARILLO 1 TULSA 0

If you love pitching then ONEOK Field was the place to be on Sunday afternoon. Cesar Gomez would continue to be great as a starter this season, lowering his ERA to 2.08 when starting after four scoreless innings, one walk, and five strikeouts. It's been talked about a lot but since the the promotion of Dylan Ray and Spencer Giesting the Sod Poodles have lacked two every day starting pitchers, getting a great start from Gomez goes a long way in a series like this.

Peter Heubeck dominated the Sod Poodles for a second straight start, following up his no-hit outing on Tuesday with with a Sunday line of six innings, four hits just one walk and nine strikeouts. With numbers like that for a second straight start, Amarillo could see a repeat of last week against Frisco with a Texas League Player/Pitcher of the Week (Luis Mieses) coming at their expense. Fortunately unlike Tuesday's opener the Soddies would find a run against the Tulsa.

The most recent addition to the Sod Poodles roster made a major impact. Looking like Amarillo was headed for another quick inning in the eighth, Kevin Graham stepped to the plate with two outs and worked a seven pitch at bat. The Amarillo outfield would launch the seventh pitch just over the wall, cracking the run column to give Amarillo a late lead.

The bullpen put together another great night, allowing just two hits for the rest of the night, both coming off of Gerardo Gutierrez in what was otherwise a great night for him. Jhosmer Alvarez came in and gave the Soddies a hitless two innings, striking out out one in the process. As good as Durke's Friday outing was, he topped himself witha shut down performance on Sunday. The former Rice Owl gave three sat down the Drillers in order and struck out a pair with his best looking stuff in Double-A so far.

Amarillo claimed their first series win since Tulsa left town on May 11th, and improved to 25-32 with time running out in the first half. Ethan Salas and the Missions are coming to town this week after San Antonio split their series with Midland at the Wolff.