Soddies by Morning: A Familiar Finale for Amarillo, Springfield Series Recap
The Sod Poodles swapped identities on Sunday afternoon, but unfortunately it was more of the same in the series finale against Springfield. Amarillo fell to 2-7 after a 17-12 loss on Sunday. The game went like most of the 6-Games this week. The Cardinals attacked starting pitching early again. Amarillo starter Roman Angelo struggled with the long ball again on Sunday, giving up 3 more home runs, bringing his total to 7 on the season so far. Springfield wasted no time getting to work scoring 4 in the first inning, including RJ Yeager‘s first of 2 home runs on the afternoon. Amarillo would respond with a big 7-run inning before Springfield immeditely responded with their own 7-Run inning in the top of the 4th. Angelo would give up 10 runs, 8 earned, on 9 hits, 2 strikeouts, and 4 walks in 3 innings of work. The bullpen wasn’t much better today, the combination of Landon Sims, Zach Barnes, Conor Grammes, and Zane Russell totaled: 6 IP / 7 R / 6 ER / 8 BB / 5 K. Only Barnes came out unscathed, pitching a scoreless 2 innings in the 6th and 7th.
The headline for this game by far is that Sod Poodles third basemen LuJames Groover went down with an injury after his first at bat on Sunday. Groover took a swing and immeditely grabbed his hand before consulting the trainers and leaving the game. Groover had started the season with an 8 game hitting streak, hitting 13-36 with 4 doubles, a home run and 4 RBI in that stretch, before the streak being unfortunately snapped today. After struggling early in the series including a 0-5 with 5 strikeouts performance, Andy Weber went 2-5 with a 3 RBI double to give Amarillo a brief lead in the bottom of the 3rd. Jerimaih Boyd made an impact after seeing limited action this series. After hitting his first homer of the season earlier this week Boyd stepped in again to give the red hot Christian Cerda a day off, and took advantage of his oppurtunity going 2-4 with a double and 4 RBI. Jesus Valdez like Boyd, has taken advantage of his limited time, Valdez only has 2 hits so far this season but finds himself tied for the team lead in home runs after he launched his second home run for a 2-run shot. Jose Fernandez used this series to get hot going 3-4 with an RBI on Sunday, to boost his average to .355 on the year, placing him behind only: Cerda (.409) Troy (.406) and Groover (.361) on the team.
Series Recap
GAME 1 – SPR 16 AMA 7 / GAME 2 – SPR 10 AMA 9 / GAME 3 – SPR 8 AMA 4
GAME 4 – SPR 3 AMA 2 / GAME 5 – SPR 3 AMA 15 / GAME 6 – SPR 17 AMA 12
Springfield outscored Amarillo 57 to 49 in the 6 game stretch helped out a lot by the only victory in the fifth game of the series that the Sod Poodles won 15-3 on Saturday night. The Sod Poodles struggled in the field with 14 errors, 3 from Tommy Troy alone before an incredible rest of the series from him. Chase Davis and JJ Wetherholt did their damage all series torching Sod Poodle pitching, with Cardinals #1 Prospect JJ Wetherholt recording his first 10 Texas League hits the last 4 games of the set and only striking out 1 time.
You can’t get much more locked in at the plate than Tommy Troy is right now. As discussed on Sunday morning’s Soddies by Morning Troy might’ve turned in the best week of his career against the Cardinals when most struggled. After his torrid homestand (numbers above) Troy raised his season averages to .406/.587/.625/.1.212 that puts him 5th/2nd/10th/4th in those catagories in the Texas League so far. Troy’s 12 walks lead the league after a 10 walk series against Springfield.
If you’re a pitcher and your name isn’t Spencer Giesting then you haven’t won a game this year for the Sod Poodles. Giesting started the season with 10 scoreless frames before finally giving up 3 runs in the 6th inning on Saturday. The lefty relied on his fastball and his possibly organization best slider to get outs, and was successful in both outings despite a walk problem in his second start. As you can see above Amarillo starters have had a tough go through 9 games, but the season is young and there’s still time to figure it out if not now then during the fresh start of the second half.
The Sod Poodles will be back at it on Tuesday night in Frisco to take on the 6-3 Texas League South leading Roughriders (tied with San Antonio).
