Soddies Drop Series Opener to Riders
Situational Hitting in Seventh Powers Frisco to Tuesday Triumph
After a 2-7 start in the first two series of the year and a staff ERA that was the second highest in Minor League Baseball of 8.82, Amarillo desperately needed a great start from someone besides Spencer Giesting. Jose Cabrera delivered on Tuesday. Cabrera went out and dominated Frisco tossing 6 innings of 1 run ball, only giving up 3 hits walking 2 and striking out 6. Cabrera held #1 ranked Ranger Prospect Sebastian Walcott to a 1/3 night despite the shortstop blasting two balls of 110+ MPH off the bat, including a 113 MPH single that was only one of 3 hits given up by the right hander last night. That single was apart of a 4th inning that would be the only scratch on Fernandez' night, as Josh Hatcher grounded out to score Osuna, who Fernandez had hit in the first at-bat in the inning.
Early Frisco starter, and Rangers #5 prospect by MLB Pipeline, Winston Santos looked like he was going to steal the show, after not pitching since Opening Day due to some soreness. Santos burst into the game in attack mode, striking out Andy Weber and Tommy Troy on 6 pitches, before getting Conticello to pop out on his first pitch to kick start the game. On his birthday the 23 year old from the Dominican Republic gave the Roughriders ,3 innings of nearly flawless pitching, giving up 0 runs, on 0 hits, 1 walk, and 5 strikeouts. Santos attacked the zone last night, hammering 23 of his 29 pitches for strikes. After that performance, the Sod Poodles were not sad to see him go.
The Sod Poodles had better luck against Ryan Lobus, picking up a run in both of his innings to take take the lead 2-1 after a Kristian Robinson sacrifice fly, and a Gavin Conticello ground out. Roughriders reliever Peyton Gray might have put on the most impressive pitching performance on a night there were a couple good ones. Gray relieved Lobus and immediately put an end to any momentum Amarillo had. The right-hander was a strike away from and immaculate inning in his first frame out of the bullpen, freezing Caleb Roberts and Robinson at the plate to get them looking, and getting Fernandez to 0-2 before finally missing the zone. Gray would pitch one more scoreless inning, allowing Frisco to take back the lead in the 7th after extra base hits from Cooper Johnson and Frainyer Chavez, plus a pair of sacrifice flies to make the lead 4-2 against Sod Poodle reliever Ceasar Gomez. Gray would be responsible for 4 of the 14 Sod Poodles strikeouts, adding to their Texas League leading total of 130 in the 10 games so far in 2025
In a twist of what I'm willing to call "Soddies Luck" at this point, Josh Hatcher sent a flyball near the baseline when first basemen Jesus Valdez took charge more than 90 feet away from his base. The ball dropped and hugged the baseline on its way foul when Valdez picked it up instead trying to make a play, gifting Frisco a runner on second base. The That would be the only hit that the Texas League leader in average would have on the evening. Cabrera would escape the inning without a scratch.
Second basemen Tommy Troy and catcher Christin Cerda extended their hitting streaks to 6 games, with Cerda picking up his 4th multi-hit game in his last 5 starts. Cerda did it with the glove again tonight as well, catching a would be base stealer for the second consecutive game, boosting his season total to 50 CS%. Kristian Robinson would record the only extra base hit of the ball game for Amarillo in the 9th before being driven in by the sneaky hot Jose Fernandez to cut the Frisco lead to 4-3, but after giving up those hits Ahlstrom shut the door by striking out the side for his 2nd save of the season. Frisco moved to 7-3 on the season taking sole possesion of first place in the Texas League South with San Antonio being no-hit by Northwest Arkansas at the Wolff on Tuesday night. The Sod Poodles fall to 2-8 placing them in last currently in th Texas League South. On the bright side for Amarillo they only used 2 arms total to open there series, giving them a much needed break. (Cabrera 6 IP / Gomez 3 IP)
Probable Starting Pitchers
Left Handed Pitcher Kohl Drake
Drake, the Rangers #13 Prospect, will be making his 2nd start of 2025 after 3 innings of 4 run baseball in his intial start. Northwest Arkansas's Jac Caglianone drove in 3 of those 4 run's with a single swing, taking Drake deep for one of his Texas League leading home runs. Drake is coming off of a great 2024 for that he pitched to a 2.29 ERA (2.84 FIP), striking out 148, while walking only 31 , in his 106 Innings. Drake brings a good fastball, that's complimented by a slider, curveball, and change up mix, that are delivered from his 6'5" frame.
Right Handed Pitcher Dylan Ray
In his last outing against the hot bats of Springfield, 3 of the 5 hits Ray gave up were for extra bases, including a homer by RJ Yeager. After putting together a solid 3 innings in San Antonio before it unraveled after a weird sprinkler delay, and running in to a Springfield offense that almost the entire Amarillo staff could'nt stop Ray will look for win #1 on the 2025 season in Frisco on Wednesday. Arizona's #20 prospect brings a fastball, curveball, cutter, change up and a slider that's his best offering.
First Pitch tonight for game is at 6:35 between the 7-3 Roughriders and the 2-8 Sod Poodles.
