Jean Walters spent Friday night driving baseballs the other way and runners toward home, turning a career performance into a franchise night at Hodgetown. His two opposite-field home runs and bases-clearing double produced seven RBIs, tying the Amarillo single-game record and powering the Sod Poodles to a 17-1 rout of the San Antonio Missions — the largest margin of victory in franchise history.
Walters went 3-for-5, but the damage stretched across the lineup. Amarillo collected 19 hits and scored in six of its eight offensive innings. Every starter except Avery Owusu-Asiedu had at least two hits.
The Sod Poodles seized control before Walters even stepped to the plate. Trent Youngblood and Cristofer Torin opened the first inning with walks against Carson Montgomery, and Angel Ortiz sent a line drive deep to right that hopped over the fence for his 21st double, scoring Youngblood. After a lineout, Druw Jones pulled a hard grounder that deflected off third baseman Ryan Jackson and rolled into left, bringing home Torin and Ortiz for a 3-0 lead.
Walters added a run in the second with his fifth homer, lifting a fly ball toward the left-field pole that stayed fair and carried out. It was a preview of the swing that would close his night.
By the third, Amarillo had turned the game into a runaway. Ortiz opened the scoring with a 412-foot drive to left-center, his 13th homer, before a walk and two singles loaded the bases. Walters came within feet of another home run, driving a ball off the wall in left and clearing the bases. Youngblood singled him home, and Owusu-Asiedu reached on an error that scored another run, completing a six-run inning and pushing the lead to 10-0.
That was ample support for David Hagaman, who moved through five scoreless innings on 54 pitches. The right-hander allowed one hit and one walk, struck out three and earned his second victory.
His most serious trouble came in the second, when Jackson walked and Kerrington Cross doubled to put two runners in scoring position with one out. Hagaman escaped when Luis Verdugo lined to Jones in center and Jackson was thrown out at the plate for an inning-ending double play. Hagaman retired the final nine batters he faced.
Pitching coach Gabby Hernandez had praised Hagaman’s composure before the game, an assessment that held up once he took the mound.
“Oh, yeah. Super mature. Very poised. Good idea of his strengths, his routine. Everything’s very professional when it comes to hags. He’s in a great spot, you know, for being here for the first time in AA, for sure.”
— Gabby Hernandez, Sod Poodles Pitching Coach
The lead kept growing after Hagaman departed. Youngblood doubled and scored on Torin’s single in the fifth, and Carlos Virahonda supplied the night’s other milestone an inning later. With Ben McLaughlin aboard, Virahonda drove a line over the wall in left for his first Double-A home run, extending the advantage to 13-0.
Virahonda finished 2-for-5 with two RBIs. Hernandez, who had watched the 20-year-old catcher for only a short time, pointed before the game to the instincts behind the plate that had already made an impression.
“I just love Vera Honda. He’s got another anticipation factor back there. Like he’s a step ahead of everything, which is really good. You can tell he’s really heads up as a catcher too.”
— Gabby Hernandez, Sod Poodles Pitching Coach
San Antonio managed its only run in the seventh against Dawson Brown, scoring on Jackson’s forceout. The Missions finished with three hits, and Amarillo played error-free defense.
The Sod Poodles piled on four runs in the eighth. Junior Franco singled home McLaughlin before Walters drove a fly ball toward left-center. It kept carrying until Albert Fabian ran out of room at the fence, giving Walters his second homer, three more RBIs and the final 17-1 margin.
Jones went 3-for-5 with two RBIs, two runs and a stolen base. Youngblood added a triple, a double and a walk in his 3-for-5 night, while Ortiz finished 2-for-5 with a homer and a double.
For a club preparing to shift into postseason baseball, the night offered both a tuneup and a reminder of how overwhelming Amarillo’s lineup can be when production comes from everywhere. Hernandez said the work since the beginning of the year had left the group intent on carrying the season through its final stretch.
“I think there’s a lot of guys here that, you know, they’ve been grinding for since January. You know, and they see the finish line and they’re ready to finish strong, whether that’s in Frisco or whether that’s two weeks from now, they’re going to finish strong.”
— Gabby Hernandez, Sod Poodles Pitching Coach