Amarillo had already built one big inning, lost it, and watched the night tilt away. The Sod Poodles still found another one in the eighth, the kind of late rally that usually becomes the whole story: a double off the wall, a run-scoring single, a string of walks, a wild pitch and enough noise around the plate to turn an 11-7 deficit into a 12-11 lead.
It lasted only until Luke Hanson got a ball in the air.
Hanson, Frisco’s No. 9 hitter, hit his first Double-A home run in the bottom of the eighth, a three-run drive to left-center off Carlos Rey that sent the RoughRiders back in front for a 14-12 win Thursday night at Riders Field. Amarillo scored six runs in the second inning and five more in the eighth, finished with 11 hits and did not commit an error. It still was not enough on a night Frisco answered almost everything, scoring in six of its eight offensive innings and piling up 15 hits.
The loss kept Amarillo’s magic number at five.
That made the night especially hard to reduce. The Sod Poodles did plenty that looked like a winning formula. Ben McLaughlin had two hits, was hit by a pitch and scored twice. Jean Walters went 2-for-4 with a double, walk and strikeout. Trent Youngblood went 2-for-5 with a walk and supplied the first defining swing, his fifth Amarillo homer and a second-inning grand slam.
Before the game, former Sod Poodles manager Tim Bogart had described a club whose strength was not just individual talent, but the way it had fit together down the stretch.
“This is a good group of kids that play together. They like each other. You can tell the clubhouse chemistry is really good.”
— Tim Bogart, Diamondbacks Special Assistant For Player Development And Former Sod Poodles Manager
For a while, the second inning looked like a clean illustration of that. Druw Jones and McLaughlin reached, Danny Serretti was hit by a pitch, and Matt O’Neill ripped a ground-ball single through the left side to score Jones. Walters followed with a bunt single up the first-base line, a well-placed ball that made it 2-0 and kept the bases loaded.
Then Youngblood lifted the inning into something larger. His grand slam carried to left-center, chasing Marcus Lee Sang back and turning a steady rally into a 6-0 Amarillo lead.
Frisco cut into it with two runs in the bottom half against Junior Sanchez, but Angel Ortiz answered immediately in the third. Ortiz hit his 10th Amarillo homer, driving a ball to right-center that splashed into the lazy river area and pushed the Sod Poodles back ahead 7-2.
From there, the game started leaking away.
Sanchez allowed six earned runs over 2.1 innings, with three strikeouts and one walk. Frisco’s five-run third included Arturo Disla’s two-run homer, run-scoring balls from Malcolm Moore and Lee Sang, and Sebastian Walcott’s tying double to right off Antonio Menendez. The ball dropped in front of Avery Owusu-Asiedu as Lee Sang scored, and a game that had been 6-0 Amarillo in the second was 7-7 by the third.
Frisco moved ahead in the fifth on Hanson’s sacrifice bunt, then added two in the sixth on Moore’s homer and one more in the seventh on Dylan Dreiling’s double. Moore went 2-for-4 with a homer, hit by pitch and three RBIs. Hanson finished 2-for-3 with a homer, a walk and five RBIs.
Still, Amarillo did not let the game harden there.
The eighth began with McLaughlin being hit by a pitch and O’Neill drawing a walk around a Serretti strikeout. Walters drove a line drive to right that got over Keith Jones II and reached the base of the fence, scoring McLaughlin and putting two runners in scoring position. Youngblood followed with a ground-ball single to right to make it 11-9.
After Eric Loomis entered, the inning turned from rally to scramble. Cristofer Torin walked as a wild pitch brought Walters home. Owusu-Asiedu walked. Ortiz walked, forcing in Youngblood with the tying run. Jones then walked in a plate appearance that included more chaos around the plate, with the go-ahead run already in, Owusu-Asiedu ending up at third, Ortiz at second and Amarillo in front, 12-11.
Bogart’s pregame advice for September baseball had been to stay within the game rather than reach for something extra.
“Try not to do more. You don’t need to do more. You need to do what you’re capable of.”
— Tim Bogart, Diamondbacks Special Assistant For Player Development And Former Sod Poodles Manager
Amarillo had done enough to retake the lead. Rey then hit Moore to open the bottom of the eighth, got Lee Sang on a soft grounder that moved Moore to second, and walked Keith Jones II. Hanson came up with two on and one out and drove a 1-0 pitch to left-center.
The Sod Poodles put the tying runners aboard in the ninth when Walters walked and Youngblood followed with another walk, but Bryan Magdaleno struck out Torin and got Owusu-Asiedu on a grounder to short to end it.