Early Tulsa Runs Too Much for Sod Poodles to Overcome in Thursday Defeat

TULSA, OK (August 20, 2026) -- The Amarillo Sod Poodles (25-23, 61-55) fell to the Tulsa Drillers (29-19, 75-42), 8-5, on Thursday night at ONEOK Field. After falling behind early, the Soddies scored four unanswered runs in the late innings in a comeback attempt, but fell short in the defeat.

Up against Aidan Foeller, the Dodgers’ 21st-ranked prospect, Amarillo went down in order in the top of the first, all via the strikeout. The Soddies got right to work in the second as Druw Jones opened the frame with a one-out double, but a groundout and flyout followed to put the scoring chance to bed.

Avery Short quickly retired the first two batters he faced in the home second, but a two-out rally put runners at second and third which led to a Jose Izarra double that put two on the board for the Drillers. Following a bunt single, Josue De Paula got a hold of a hanging 2-2 breaking ball and left the yard for the 24th time this year, giving Tulsa a 5-0 lead.

The Soddies got on the board in the top of the fourth after Avery Owusu-Asiedu singled to lead off the frame, extending his hit streak to nine games. After swiping second with two away, Ben McLaughlin chopped one through the left side of the infield, giving the green light to Owusu-Asiedu to sprint home as the right fielder dove to the plate to score Amarillo’s first run of the night.

Tulsa responded quickly to extend their lead with De Paula striking again, this time with an RBI single. A Griffin Lockwood-Powell double brought home another Tulsa run, putting the hosts up, 7-1. In the following frame, Kole Myers launched a solo homer to bring their run total for the night to eight.

A fielding error and two walks loaded the bases for Amarillo in the top of the sixth and they would scratch their lone run of the inning on a balk that plated Jansel Luis. In the eighth, Owusu-Asiedu legged out a triple on a misplayed fly ball to right and scored on Luis’ infield single to begin to chip away at the deficit.

In the immediate next at-bat, Jones tripled for the second Soddies three-bagger of the inning to plate another run and cut the deficit to three. After the Drillers recorded their first out of the inning, Junior Franco laid down a perfect drag bunt to bring Jones home safely and earn the base hit as Amarillo exited the eighth only trailing by three runs with an inning left to play.

Danny Serretti singled and Jones walked in the ninth, bringing McLaughlin up to the dish as the tying run, but a great play was made by the Tulsa shortstop on a pop-up to shallow left field to record the final out and tag Amarillo with the 8-5 loss.

POSTGAME NOTES

AOA-OK: Extending his hit streak to nine games with a single and a triple tonight was Avery Owusu-Asiedu...since joining the Sod Poodles on August 11, he is batting .486 (17x35) with 11 runs scored, three doubles, one triple, six home runs, 15 RBI and a 1.711 OPS...between Amarillo and High-A Hillsboro, he has now hit safely 16 straight contests.