A six-run lead should have given Frisco room to breathe. Instead, it disappeared by the sixth inning, and the tie in the seventh gave way for good when Danny Serretti lined a three-run double to right in the eighth.
The RoughRiders’ fast start unraveled into a 12-7 loss to the Amarillo Sod Poodles on Thursday at Riders Field. Amarillo scored in six of seven innings, collecting 14 hits and capitalizing on three Frisco errors while outscoring the RoughRiders 12-1 after the second.
Frisco had built its advantage quickly. Sebastian Walcott walked to open the first, and Rafe Perich and Arturo Disla followed with walks around an out. Gleider Figuereo drove a sharp two-run double to right, Malcolm Moore singled home Disla, and Max Wagner capped the five-run inning with a two-run double to center.
Walcott added a line-drive homer to left-center in the second, stretching the lead to 6-0. He finished 2-for-4 with a walk, while Moore reached four times, going 2-for-3 with two walks, an RBI and a run.
Starter Cole Stasio gave Frisco three innings of stability. He allowed only Alberto Barriga’s third-inning homer, finishing with one earned run, four strikeouts and one walk.
The game changed once Frisco went to the bullpen.
Amarillo cut the margin to 6-3 in the fourth. Carlos Virahonda doubled against Austin Roberts and scored when first baseman Disla could not handle a throw, and Jean Walters later singled home Serretti against Joey Danielson. Ben McLaughlin’s solo homer off Kai Wynyard in the fifth brought the Sod Poodles within two.
Brock Porter inherited two runners later that inning and escaped, but Amarillo broke through against him in the sixth. Barriga walked, and Walters dropped a bunt toward third. Figuereo’s throwing error allowed Barriga to score and sent Walters to third.
Porter recorded two outs, but two more walks prolonged the inning. Druw Jones followed with a two-run single to center, scoring Walters and Avery Owusu-Asiedu and turning Frisco’s once-commanding advantage into a 7-6 deficit. Porter was charged with a blown save after allowing three earned runs and three walks in one inning.
The RoughRiders produced one answer. Disla walked with one out in the seventh, Moore singled him to third with two outs, and Paxton Kling’s ground-ball single to short brought Disla home for a 7-7 tie.
That opening lasted only until the eighth.
Zach Bryant allowed a leadoff single to McLaughlin and struck out the next two hitters, but a walk to Jones prompted another pitching change. Wily Villar entered and walked Virahonda to load the bases. Serretti then drove a sharp liner into right, clearing the bases and putting Amarillo ahead 10-7.
Bryant took the loss after allowing two earned runs with four strikeouts and two walks in two innings. Villar was charged with three earned runs in two-thirds of an inning.
McLaughlin added his second homer of the game in the ninth, a two-run shot to right that completed the scoring. He finished 3-for-6 with three RBIs.
Frisco’s seven relievers combined to allow 11 runs over six innings. By the end, the five-run first and Walcott’s homer felt less like the beginning of a rout than the outline of everything the RoughRiders let slip away.