Ben McLaughlin sent one drive off the right-field wall, another over the left-center fence and gave Amarillo one last chance to erase a six-run deficit Sunday afternoon. The tying run reached second behind him before a liner to third finally ended the chase.
The Sod Poodles’ five late runs could not undo a three-inning bullpen collapse in an 11-10 loss to the San Antonio Missions at Hodgetown.
Amarillo entered the sixth with a 5-2 lead, built in large part on Danny Serretti’s three-run homer in the fifth. By the bottom of the eighth, the Sod Poodles trailed 11-5. San Antonio had scored nine runs in between, turning what looked like a comfortable finish into a test of how much fight Amarillo had left.
There was plenty. Just not quite enough.
McLaughlin went 3-for-5 with a triple, his 15th home run and three RBIs. Angel Ortiz added three hits and a walk, while Carlos Virahonda doubled twice among his two hits. Altogether, Amarillo collected 16 hits and scored three runs in the eighth and two more in the ninth.
The comeback began with Ortiz’s single and Druw Jones’ double in the eighth. McLaughlin attacked the first pitch and drove it deep toward the right-field wall. The ball kicked away from Jack Costello as Ortiz and Jones scored, and McLaughlin raced into third standing. Alberto Barriga’s infield single brought him home and cut the deficit to 11-8.
Amarillo put the first two runners aboard again in the ninth, but Jones’ ground ball became a double play. Avery Owusu-Asiedu scored, although the two outs left the Sod Poodles with almost no room for another mistake.
McLaughlin kept the game alive by launching a solo homer to left-center. Virahonda followed with a double, placing the tying run in scoring position, but Barriga lined out to third to end it.
That rally became necessary because a game Amarillo had controlled came apart quickly. Billy Corcoran opened the sixth by allowing a single and a walk before Luis Verdugo drove a three-run homer to left, erasing the Sod Poodles’ lead with one swing. After a strikeout, Romeo Sanabria lifted another homer toward left-center, aided by the wind, to put San Antonio ahead.
The Missions added another run later in the inning, completing a five-run burst. Corcoran took the loss after allowing four earned runs in two innings.
Alec Baker surrendered two runs in the seventh and two more in the eighth. Justin DeCriscio supplied the last and largest late blow, sending his first Double-A home run over the wall in left-center for an 11-5 advantage. Baker was charged with four earned runs in two innings.
The bullpen’s importance had been a subject before the game, when manager Javier Colina discussed his available arms and the absence of Antonio Menendez for the first playoff round.
“We feel pretty strong talking to Gabby, but we don’t have good news for today.”
— Javier Colina, Amarillo Sod Poodles Manager
John West had supplied three scoreless innings with two strikeouts after Mason Marriott allowed a two-run homer to Kerrington Cross in the first. Owusu-Asiedu answered immediately, driving his 14th homer 442 feet toward the scoreboard in left-center. Virahonda’s second-inning RBI double tied the game.
Serretti then won an eight-pitch battle in the fifth, driving his 14th homer beyond the right-center wall to score Barriga and Jean Walters. It was a three-run swing that gave Amarillo its largest lead and made the reversal that followed all the more jarring.
Joe Ariola struck out all three outs in a scoreless ninth, giving the Sod Poodles one final opening. Their offense nearly squeezed through it, carrying a game that had appeared finished all the way to its last line drive.