Soddies By Morning: Langford Goes Long as Amarillo's Slow Starts Continue

Just what the Sod Poodles needed. Coming into Thursday night Amarillo was 2-9, having not won a game since last Saturday, gearing up to face a Frisco team that already won the first two games of the series and sat in first place in the Texas League South at 8-3. Then they recieved some major reinforcement's. Early on Thursday it was announced that one of the league's biggest rising star's Wyatt Langford would be joining Frisco on Thursday & Friday for his rehab assignment. Langford was dealing with a tweaked oblique, but he looked just like himself on Thursday night. The outfielder wasted zero time making his presence welcome, as the former Florida Gator and 4th overall pick took Amarillo starter Avery Short deep in his first to give Frisco a lead that they would never give back. The big leaguer went 1-3 on the night with a walk, and a strikeout. Frisco wasn't quite done in the first inning. After the Langford long ball the rest of the first inning was a prospect parade for the Roughriders. Short hit the #8 prospect in the Rangers system Alejandro Osuna, and #1 ranked Sebastian Walcott ripped an extra base hit of his own with a double. Josh Hatcher arguably the Texas League's hottest bat, hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Walcott. Abimelec Ortiz (#14 ranked) singled to right field to make it 3-0 Frisco early.

Despite the rough start, like his last start Avery Short would rebound. Short dealt Amarillo's second longest outing by a starting pitcher this year at 5.2 innings, only trailing Jose Cabrera's 6 in the series opener on Tuesday night. After his second start, his first at Hodgetown, Short told me that he wanted to "limit the walks" and succesfully did that on Thursday giving up only 2, one to Wyatt Langford and the other to Sebastian Walcott. The Amarillo left hander struck out 4 Roughriders in the start, and salvaged a rough start by eating innings after giving up two more runs in the third on a sacrifice by Walcott and a Hatcher single. Short finished strong, after the Hatcher single the starter would retire 9 of the next 10 batters he faced, with a Walcott walk being the only blemish and striking out Langford in that stretch. Shorts final line would be: 5.2 IP / 5 Hits / 5 Runs / 5 Earned Runs / 2 Walks / 4 Strikeouts.

Another night, another solid start from a Frisco starter. Grand Prairie High Graduate Josh Stephan gave up a lead off single to Kristian Robinson but would only surrender one hit the rest of the night. The lone hit was a rocket off of the hot bat of Christian Cerda for his second homer of 2025, in the second of the inning to cut the led to 3-1. That homer was the first Sod Poodles run scored off of Roughrider starting pitching the entire series, Winston Santos went 3 scoreless in the opener and Kohl Drake pitched 5 scoreless of his own on Wednesday night. Stephan would go 5 innings of just 1-run ball on the night locking down the Amarillo, striking out 3, walking 2, on 84 pitches and 59 strikes.

After a light load on the bullpen the night before, using only Ceasar Gomez, Amarillo only needed two arms to finish out the night, and they were arguably the two sharpest relievers on the season so far. Zach Barnes made a brief scoreless appearance walking Cooper Johnson but then getting the final out of the 6th inning. Luke Albright was lights out once again. After two more scoreless innings last night, Albright extended his scoreless innings streak to 6.

Once again the Sod Poodles would have a little late life. Center fielder Kristian Robinson singled to start the 8th, and Tommy Troy singled to extended his hitting streak late to get it to 8 games. Gavin Conticello doubled to drive in Robinson and Troy to push his own streak of games with an RBI to 3 straight and make it 5-3. Frisco reliever Travis MacGregor would surrender his 4th baserunner of the inning when he hit Groover to put two on with nobody out. The Roughrider right hander would tighten the screws after that, sitting down Andy Weber on a flyball and striking out the Sod Poodles best hitter so far this year in Christian Cerda. Robbie Ahlstrom came in and got the last out in the 8th and slammed the door shut in the 9th to seal Frisco's third straight win to start the series.

Probable Starters

Left Handed Pitcher Spencer Giesting

Fear not Amarillo fans, Spencer Giesting takes the mound tonight! That's at least how it feels to see his name in the probable starters spot for the night. The lefty finds himself in a familiar spot, having started the only two victories for the Sod Poodles this season, delivering 10 straight scoreless innings, before surrendering 3 earned runs in the 6th inning of his second outing last week against Springfield. Since the season started Amarillo has been outscored in the first two innings 20-5, continuously finding themselves behind 8-Ball early, but Giesting has been the remedy for that allowing the Sod Poodles time for the bats to get ahead. Giesting brings a low 90s fastball, cutter, curveball changeup, and a great slider to a matchup up with a Frisco team that has slashed .260/.396/.466/.862 against southpaws in 78 at-bats in 2025. The Amarillo lefty will get to face a Frisco lineup that will include Wyatt Langford for the second straight night.

Right Handed Pitcher Ben Anderson

Anderson will be making his second start and his third appearance on the season tonight. The twin of former Braves #3 overall pick Ian Anderson, gave up 4 earned runs against Corpus Christi in an outing out of a pen before he only gave up 1 earned run against Northwest Arkansas last week. 26 year old right hander has pitched to a 5.87 ERA (5.96 FIP) in 7.2 innings, surrendering 10 runs (just 7 earned), registering 7 strikeouts on 6 walks. Anderson will get his shot at this Soddies lineup that's currently hitting .264/.372/.414/.786 against right handers so for this year, but also have 102 strikeouts that leads the Texas League.