Soddies by Morning: Giestings Great Stuff and Conticello’s Big Blast Help Amarillo Enter the Win Column

The opening series is in the books for 2025 and the Sod Poodles are heading home with their first victory.  

Starter Spencer Giesting tossed a terrific 5 shutout innings on 79 pitches (51 strikes), and looked like he did towards the end of 2024. The left handed pitcher drafted out of Charlotte in 2022, struck out 5 and didn’t walk any of the 18 batters he faced en route to picking up his first victory of the year. Giesting attacked the zone early and it paid off on Sunday. 

The Sod Poodles had to wait 22 innings for their first home run, but Gavin Conticello’s blast was worth the wait. The Amarillo center fielder took an 0-2 pitch from Mission’s reliever Carter Loewen over the right field fence, barely getting a trot from the right fielder Robinson as it flew over. It was Conticello’s third consecutive game to get a hit, something only he and LuJames Groover accomplished on the weekend.

On Friday it was Alec Baker, Saturday saw an incredible 6 strikeout performance from Zane Russell, and on Sunday it was the duo of Caesar Gomez and Jhosmer Alvarez adding to the great bullpen appearances in the series. The pair followed Giesting’s excellent outing, putting up a combined line of 3.0 IP / 1 H / 0 R / 0 ER / 2 K / 0 BB, to help hold the Amarillo lead at 4-0 going into the 9th. 

After keeping the Missions offense quiet for 8 innings, a pair of walks from the day’s closer Alfred Morillo and a Sanabria single helped San Antonio break the shutout with and cut the lead to 4-1 Amarillo. Padres top prospect Ethan Salas, after putting together a great defensive weekend behind the plate, cracked the hit column for the first time to drive in two runs in and shrink the lead to just 1. After one more single by Castañon, Morillo finally shut the door on San Antonio with a double play ball. 

The Sod Poodles bats for the third game in a row struggled with runners in scoring position, going 4/25 (.160) to start the year, with 2 of those belonging to right fielder Jack Hurley and his RBI double today. Javier Colina and his club will welcome JJ Weatherholt and the Springfield Cardinals (2-1) to Hodgetown on Tuesday already with win #1 of 2025 under their belt!