Soddies by Morning: Robinson and Troy Make Magic Just in Time Missouri

For six innings last night it looked like it would be the usual result against the Cardinals for your Sod Poodles, but Amarillo's two most consistent hitters this year had other plans in mind.

The Sod Poodles offense was stunted by a stellar performance from Cardinals #23 prospect Max Rajcic, who was one of the only Springfield pitchers to to not have success against Amarillo earlier in the season. After giving up six earned runs the first time around in Springfield's only loss in the second series of the season Rajcic flipped the script on Amarillo and tossed 5.1 scoreless innings of 2 hit baseball and sat down 7 Sod Poodles via the strikeout while walking 2. Gavin Conticello and Christian Cerda were the only two Soddies to record a hit off of the Cardinals right hander, Conticello ripped a double in the fourth inning and Cerda singled in the fifth.

Amarillo Starter Jose Cabrera put together what looked like a familiar Cabrera performance outside of one thing, he wasn't striking people out. The Sod Poodles fast working right hander recorded a season low 1 strikeout, only one of two outings so far this season that he didn't have at least 5 punch outs. That only other occurance was a 3 strikeout performance in his opening start against these very same Springfield Cardinals. Cabrera would additionally give up his normal high amount of hits with 9, leading to 3 Springfield runs in 5 innings of work in a no decision. The damage would come off of singles in the fifth and sixth off the bat of Ramon Mendoza and RJ Yeager, after Cabrera played with fire in some high traffic innings resulting in runs.

Amarillo finally got in board in the seventh when Chrsitian Cerda tattooed his first home run since in almost a month (April 17) scored two off and bring the score to 3-2, where it would remain until the ninth. The Soddies were down to their final two outs when Jack Hurley and hit by a pitch and gave Amarillo a little life. The Cardinals would open the door when Luis Gastelum got the ground ball that he needed, but no one covered second base and Hurley and Jean Walters both safe moved up.

If one at bat can relfect what we've seen this season from Kristian Robinson it would be this one. Robinson in a big spot worked a seven pitch at bat before lacing a 2-2 pitch for a double to left field, scoring Hurley tying the game and igniting the Amarillo dugout. With his 11 game hit streak on life support in a tie game, Tommy Troy stepped to the plate and chopped a single over the head of Jeremy Rivas to score Walters and Robinson giving Amarillo a 5-3 lead. That was the second time that Troy had driven in the go-ahead run after he put the ball in play to beat Tulsa just last week.

In typical Alfred Morillo fashion nothing exactly comes easy, but he gets the job done. After getting the last out to end the eighth, Morillo allowed the first three Springfield hitters to reach on a single and a pair of walks scoring a run. Morillo would proceed to get out of the innning and seal the victory.

It was only Amarillo second win of the season against Springfield (2-7 this season) pushing their record to 17-19 on the year. It was also the only time all season that Amarillo won a game after trailing in the eighth inning or later.

Amarillo will send Dylan Ray to the mound who has put together back to back dominant performances in his last two starts. Ray will be taking on Tekoah Roby, a former Ranger prospect who was traded for Jordan Montgomery in the 2023 World Series season. Roby will bring to the table some of the best stuff in the Texas League, Amarillo has already seen his arsenal once this season when Roby tossed four scoreless innings the first time around at Hodgetown.