Soddies Blast 5 HR In Losing Effort

AMARILLO, Texas – The Amarillo Sod Poodles hit a season-high five home runs on Saturday night, but fell just one run short of the comeback in a 12-11 defeat to the Midland RockHounds on Saturday, May 7 at HODGETOWN.

The Sod Poodles went down 8-0 after two innings and scored five over the final two, but the winning run was left stranded in the well-fought battle. Corbin Carroll and Eduardo Diaz each hit two home runs and Juan Centeno added one as well. Amarillo battled from behind all night and scored five in the 5th and four in the 8th.

On the mound for Amarillo tonight was the left-handed Blake Walston, who made his Double-A debut as the top pitching prospect in the Diamondbacks farm system. He is the No. 4 overall prospect for Arizona, and the No. 95 overall MLB prospect.

Walston’s highly anticipated Double-A debut went sideways in the 2nd inning, en route to allowing a career-high eight runs (seven earned) over two innings pitched. He allowed a hit to the first batter he faced, but caught a lineout and turned a 1-3 double play in a scoreless first inning.

The first two batters of the 2nd reached for Midland, and Jordan Diaz scored them both on an RBI double. The RockHounds then rallied with two outs with a walk and back-to-back singles plating three more runs.

Midland batted around in the five-run 2nd and batted around once again in a three-run 3rd. Walston allowed a run to score on back-to-back doubles to kick off the inning, and a two-run home run by Diaz ended his night with the Sod Poodles trailing 8-0. His final line in his first Double-A start was 2.0 IP, 8 H, 8 R, 7 ER, 2 BB and 1 K.

WELCOME BACK TO SLAMARILLO, EDUARDO DIAZ

It's a new ballgame.

END 5 | AMA - 6 | MID - 9

Nice. pic.twitter.com/23duiX90Tb

— Amarillo Sod Poodles (@sodpoodles) May 8, 2022

ANOTHER COR-💣‼️

His second of the night and it's a 3-run once again..

Something about this day... pic.twitter.com/sydoZxGVum

— Amarillo Sod Poodles (@sodpoodles) May 8, 2022

Josh Green was transferred to Amarillo from Reno just this morning and made his Sod Poodles debut in the 3rd, relieving Walston. The RockHounds loaded the bases on him off of a walk, hit by pitch and an error, but Green escaped the inning without allowing another run. He tossed two scoreless innings with one walk and two strikeouts.

With a tall hill to climb, the Sod Poodles began to chip away in the bottom of the 3rd. Corbin Carroll belted a 398-foot solo home run with two outs to make it 8-1, Carroll’s 6th home run of the year.

Kai-Wei Lin came on in relief in the top of the 5th. He struck out the first two batters he faced before a Kyle McCann solo home run pushed the RockHound lead back to eight runs.

The Amarillo offense came to life and made it a game with five runs in the 5th. The first three batters of the inning singled, capped by an RBI base hit from Juan Centeno. A walk loaded the bases, and Eduardo Diaz scored them all with a 405-foot grand slam to left field to make it 9-6. The grand slam was the first for Amarillo this season.

The RockHounds responded with three runs of their own in the top of the 6th to make it 12-6. Jordan Diaz hit his second two-run homer of the night to collect his sixth RBI, ending Lin’s night at 1.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB and 1 K. He was relieved by Brett de Geus, who allowed a sacrifice fly before ending the inning.

The Sod Poodles put runners in scoring position in the 6th and 7th before batting around and scoring four in the bottom of the 8th. After the first two batters were retired, Amarillo went on a two-out rally and got on the board with a three-run home run by Carroll and a solo homer from Diaz. The duo of outfielders had an outstanding day at the plate, combining for four home runs and nine RBI.

De Geus was relieved by Ryan Weiss after 1.2 scoreless innings, and Weiss did not allow a run to bring the Sod Poodles to the 9th trailing 12-10.

Amarillo was fueled all night by a passionate crowd at HODGETOWN, and they nearly completed the comeback by scoring in the bottom of the 9th. After the first two batters went down swinging, Juan Centeno launched a solo shot to bring the Soddies within one. With two home runs already on the game, Corbin Carroll struck out to end the game.

Midland out-hit Amarillo 16-13 and the teams combined for eight home runs. Amarillo had four batters with multiple hits, led by Centeno’s three. Diaz had five RBI, Carroll had four, and Centeno had two. The pitching staff struck out six and walked five, and the Sod Poodles also left eight runners on base.

The Sod Poodles have now dropped three in a row to Midland, and will fight for a split in the series finale tomorrow, Sunday, May 8 with a 1:05 first pitch. RHP Slade Cecconi (0-1, 5.66 ERA) will be on the mound for Amarillo to face Midland’s RHP Matt Milburn (1-2, 7.50 ERA)

Notes

SLAMarillo: With the bases loaded, OF Eduardo Diaz took the first pitch he faced in the 5th inning 404 feet for the first Sod Poodles grand slam of the season. The grand slam was the third of Diaz’s career and his second as a Sod Poodle. He hit Amarillo’s fifth and final slam of 2021 in the season finale on September 19. Diaz’s two long balls were also his first two of the year after finishing tied for third in the Arizona farm system last season with 21 homers. His five RBI matched the five he hit in the season finale last year.

Seattle Superstar: OF Corbin Carroll, the No. 2 Diamondbacks prospect, sent two balls into the seats for the first multi-home run game in his three-year career. The Seattle native also tied his career high with four runs batted in, tying the four RBIs he notched on July 21, 2019 as a member of the rookie-level AZL Diamondbacks. Carroll is now tied with Leandro Cedeno for the most home runs on the team (7) and is slashing a blistering .322/.456/.644 with 15 RBI. According to Carroll’s mom, his big night came on the 10-year anniversary of his first Little League home run.

Bomb City Bombers: The Sod Poodles hit five home runs as a team tonight, the most in any game this season, surpassing the four they hit in two other games. Carroll and Diaz became the fourth and fifth players to have a multi-HR game. Amarillo has now hit 42 home runs as a team, the most in Double-A and eight more than any other Texas League team (Tulsa, 34). Of the 11 runs scored tonight, 10 came via home runs.

Lockdown Defense: With a throwing error in the 2nd inning, the Sod Poodles’ consecutive error-free streak came to an end at 68.1 innings. The streak spanned nine games and included seven in a row, and finished as the second-longest streak in franchise history. In 2019, Amarillo had 125.2 consecutive error-free innings from August 26th until game two of the Texas League Championship Series.

Hits Galore: The RockHounds and Sod Poodles combined for 29 hits tonight, just shy of the season-high 37 that Amarillo and San Antonio combined for on April 23. The Sod Poodles pitching staff has now allowed 15+ hits in six games this year and have hit the mark four times. Amarillo also had four players record multiple hits tonight, bumping their season mark to 79 individual multi-hit games.