Jean Walters found open grass near the right-field corner when Amarillo needed it most, sending two runs home with a two-out triple before the Sod Poodles’ bullpen took care of the final four innings at Hodgetown.
Alberto Barriga and Danny Serretti supplied the home runs that kept Amarillo in front, and the Sod Poodles beat the San Antonio Missions 5-3 on Thursday for their third consecutive victory.
The breakthrough began with Ben McLaughlin’s double and Serretti’s walk in the second inning. Two outs followed, putting the rally in danger of disappearing. Walters lifted a fly beyond the reach of a running Alex McCoy in right, and the ball kicked off the sidewall. McLaughlin scored, Serretti followed him home and Walters slid into third with Amarillo’s first lead.
Walters finished 2-for-3 with the triple and two RBIs, helping the Sod Poodles turn a game of repeated answers into one controlled by their relief corps.
San Antonio responded immediately. Brendan Durfee homered on Brian Curley’s first pitch of the third, and Kai Roberts followed with a drive over the left-field wall. The back-to-back solo shots erased Amarillo’s two-run lead before Curley used a double play to prevent the inning from growing.
Amarillo went back ahead in the bottom half. Avery Owusu-Asiedu lined a double to right and reached third on McCoy’s throwing error, then scored on Angel Ortiz’s groundout. Ryan Jackson tied it again with a leadoff homer in the fourth, the third and final solo shot Curley allowed.
Barriga needed only one swing to restore the lead. He reached below the strike zone and drove the pitch toward left-center, golfing it out for his fifth homer and a 4-3 advantage. Amarillo loaded the bases later in the inning but did not add on.
Curley worked five innings, allowing three earned runs while striking out three without a walk. He earned the win despite yielding nine baserunners, limiting the damage to the three solo homers and getting double plays in the third and fourth.
Once Curley departed, the Missions stopped scoring. Joe Ariola retired all six batters he faced in his Double-A debut, striking out Durfee to complete two scoreless innings. His outing carried the same kind of defined late-game responsibility that left-hander Taylor Montiel described before the game.
“Yeah, it’s been really exciting. When I got here, I was thinking, you know, who knows how many innings I’m going to get or whatever. But I’ve thrown pretty exclusively, you know, later in games versus lefties. And that’s, you know, that’s what I’ve always wanted to do.”
— Taylor Montiel, Sod Poodles Left-Handed Reliever
Serretti gave the bullpen breathing room against Francis Peña in the sixth. On Peña’s first pitch, Serretti sent a deep fly toward the batter’s eye in center. Roberts ran out of room, and the ball cleared the yellow line for Serretti’s 12th homer and a 5-3 lead.
Serretti went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Amarillo collected 10 hits without committing an error, with Walters, Serretti and Barriga accounting for the game’s three extra-base blows that produced runs.
Will Mabrey followed Ariola with a scoreless eighth for his second hold. Logan Mercado allowed two singles in the ninth, bringing the potential tying run to the plate, but Amarillo’s infield finished the job. Justin DeCriscio grounded to Cristofer Torin, who started a game-ending double play through Walters and McLaughlin.
The four scoreless innings from Ariola, Mabrey and Mercado provided a sharp illustration of the bullpen’s role clarity. Montiel said the relievers begin preparing with a sense of when their names might be called.
“Yeah, I try to, I really try to stay as relaxed as possible the entire game. And then, you know, we all know our spots. You know, guys know they’re more of a ninth inning guy. Usually I’m somewhere in the seventh, eighth inning.”
— Taylor Montiel, Sod Poodles Left-Handed Reliever
On Thursday, those spots fit together cleanly: Walters supplied the rescue, Barriga and Serretti supplied the separation, and the bullpen made both stand.