Amarillo Slugs Their Way To Victory Over Naturals

AMARILLO, TX (May 22, 2026) -- The Amarillo Sod Poodles (22-20) defeated the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (21-21), 8-5, on Friday night at HODGETOWN. The home squad used three home runs to propel themselves to the series-evening win.

Cristofer Torin continued his stretch of hot hitting at the plate lately, lacing a one-out triple past the sliding left fielder in Amarillo’s first turn at bat. Following up the shortstop with a knock through the right side of the infield was Manuel Pena whose single allowed Torin to score easily and give the Soddies the early one-run lead.

It wouldn’t take long for the Naturals to equalize however as a leadoff walk led to a Spencer Nivens two-run homer to left field, putting the visitors on top by one in the second inning.

In the bottom of the third, Torin tallied another extra-base hit, doubling to left to plate the tying run. Not long after, Ben McLaughlin chopped a ball through the left side of the infield to put the Soddies back in front, 3-2.

While Amarillo starter Avery Short worked to keep the lead intact, Pena and McLaughlin brought the boom in the home fifth, slugging back-to-back home runs for a combined three runs to increase the Sod Poodles advantage to four.

A two-run Northwest Arkansas sixth inning saw the Naturals creep back into the game as Sam Kulasingam homered to lead off the frame and Jack Pineda produced a run-scoring single, but they were quickly matched by the strength of Danny Serretti who crushed a two-run homer 432 feet into the Amarillo sky.

Kulasingam added another RBI to his nightly total in the seventh, but the Amarillo bullpen locked down in the final innings. Logan Mercado fanned three batters in his 1.1 innings of work out of the bullpen while Casey Anderson tossed a scoreless eighth inning.

Landon Sims took the hill in a save situation for the final frame and despite allowing the first two men to reach in the inning, he was able to record a strikeout sandwiched between two flyouts to escape the ninth unscathed and pick up his Texas League-leading eighth save of the year.

POSTGAME NOTES

GRAN TORIN-O: Staying red hot at the dish tonight was Cristofer Torin...the shortstop has seven hits combined over his last two games and all three of his knocks tonight went for extra-bases...over his most recent six games (since 5/15), he is batting .500 (13x26) with six runs scored and a 1.481 OPS.

MANNY MANIA: Scorching his 17th home run of the year to center field this evening was Manuel Pena...his eight career home runs against Northwest Arkansas are tied for the most by any batter since 2019.