Ninth Inning Sod Poodles Rally Falls Short
TULSA, OK. (June 5, 2025) -- The Amarillo Sod Poodles (22-32) fell to the Tulsa Drillers (24-30), 7-4, on Thursday night at ONEOK Field. The home town squad scores in four consecutive innings to tab Amarillo with the loss despite a late push from the Soddies. Tulsa opened the scoring
TULSA, OK. (June 5, 2025) -- The Amarillo Sod Poodles (22-32) fell to the Tulsa Drillers (24-30), 7-4, on Thursday night at ONEOK Field. The home town squad scores in four consecutive innings to tab Amarillo with the loss despite a late push from the Soddies.
Tulsa opened the scoring with a solo home run off the bat of Chris Newell in the bottom of the second. As the Sod Poodles looked to escape the bases loaded jam in the bottom of the third, John Rhodes drew a walk to increase the Drillers’ lead to two.
Amarillo earned a run back after the Sod Poodles opened the top of the fourth with back-to-back singles from Kristian Robinson and Tommy Troy. As Robinson moved up to third, he later scored on a Caleb Roberts sacrifice fly to scratch the first run of the game for the visitors, trailing Tulsa by a 2-1 score.
The Tulsa response was immediate as Yeiner Fernandez contributed and RBI single to put the Drillers up by two once more in the home half of the fourth. Looking to make it four straight innings with a score, Newell launched his second home run of the night, a three-run shot in the fifth to give Tulsa a 5-1 lead.
Checking in with his fifth home run of the year in the seventh inning of play was Gavin Conticello, launching a hanging breaking ball to right-center field to give Amarillo their second run of the ballgame.
After Tulsa collected another run in the eighth, the Sod Poodles entered the top of the ninth down 7-2. With none aboard and two away in the inning, Conticello roped a double and scored on an Ivan Melendez single to right.
As the line kept moving, Robinson drew a bases-loaded walk to bring Amarillo within three. The rally was stopped short however as the Sod Poodles left the tying run stranded to fall by a 7-4 score.
The Sod Poodles are back in action tomorrow with a 7:00 p.m. first pitch scheduled for Friday night. Amarillo will send RHP Logan Clayton (0-1, 19.29) to the hill while RHP Patrick Copen (0-0, 0.00) will toe the rubber for the Drillers.