Vukovich Walks Off Missions to Secure Series

Amarillo, Texas (June 22, 2024) – Amarillo secured a series win over the San Antonio Missions on Saturday night in walk-off fashion. The win gives Amarillo their first series victory at home this year as the first half comes to an end.

Right-hander Dylan File got the start on the bump for the Soddies. He worked around a leadoff double to keep the Missions off the board with the help of Jesus Valdez throwing out Ripken Reyes at the plate on a fielder's choice. File retired the side in order in the second before the Missions pushed runs across in the third. Allowing a walk, and single to put runners on the corners, Clay Dungan gave San Antonio a three-run lead with his second home run of the season. File collected his third strikeout and then worked around another San Antonio single to keep it a three-run game.

San Antonio's Victor Lizarraga got the help of double plays in each of the first two innings and then rattled off four straight 1-2-3 innings as he left the mound in the bottom of the fifth having faced the minimum. After the third, File allowed just a one-out walk in the fourth but got his own double play and then retired the side in order in his fifth and sixth innings of work to leave the game with a quality start. Cole Percival took the ball in the seventh and retired the Missions in order.

Caleb Roberts started the Amarillo seventh with a leadoff single, but the third double play turned by the Missions appeared to have Lizarraga on his way to another 1-2-3 inning. Instead, Tim Tawa drew a two-out walk and was followed aboard by Matt Beaty who singled to keep the inning alive for the Sod Poodles and Ivan Melendez. The D-backs' no. 8-rated prospect ambushed the first pitch he saw and knotted things up at three with his 13th home run of the year. The Missions made a pitching change and David Morgan was able to get A.J. Vukovich to ground out to end the inning.

Jake Rice relieved Percival and retired the side in order to make it four straight innings Amarillo pitchers had faced the minimum. Jesus Valdez drew a two-out walk in the bottom of the eighth before putting himself into scoring position with his second swiped bag of the season. With first base open, the Missions decided to intentionally walk Caleb Roberts. The move paid off with Jancarlos Cintron grounding out to end the threat. A leadoff bunt single by Cole Cummings ended the run of consecutive Missions retired at 13 and brought Kyle Amendt out of the Amarillo bullpen to clean up the top of the ninth. He did just that, retiring each of the next three batters he faced. The fourth double play turned by the Missions sent the game to extra innings.

Amendt struck out the first two batters he faced and a groundout helped to leave the extra-innings runner standing on second base. Vukovich didn't need long to play hero in the bottom of the 10th. A passed ball on the first pitch he saw from Francis Pena allowed Melendez to move up to third. Vukovich chopped the second pitch of the at-bat for a single up the first base line and gave Amarillo their third walk-off win of the year.

The Sod Poodles and Missions will wrap up the first half of the Texas League season on Sunday evening. It'll be a repeat on the mound from the series opener on Tuesday night with RHP Dylan Ray (0-1, 8.44 ERA) taking the ball for Amarillo against LHP Austin Krob (2-4, 6.14 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 p.m.

NOTES:

WE DIG IT: A.J. Vukovich delivered the third walk-off win for Amarillo this season with his RBI single in the bottom of the 10th off San Antonio's Francis Pena. The D-backs' no. 15-rated prospect picked the best time to get his lone knock of the game, driving in Ivan Melendez who started extras at second base. For Vukovich, Saturday night was the second time in his Amarillo career that he had played a walk-off hero, also doing so on August 29, 2023, with a solo home run to beat the Midland RockHounds.

MELENDEZSAURUS: Ivan Melendez made it back-to-back games with a home run by hitting his 13th long ball of the year to even the game at 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh. The D-backs' no. 8-rated prospect has now homered in back-to-back games for the fourth time this year and the sixth time in Double-A. He also put together two different stretches with home runs in three straight games during the 2023 season. He is now tied with Tim Tawa for the team lead in round-trippers in 2024 as the pair are still one behind the mark the Deyvison De Los Santos set before his promotion to Triple-A Reno. Saturday's blast was the 25th overall of Melendez's Amarilo career and placed him into a three-way tie for the 5th most all-time by a Sod Poodle. He joined Caleb Roberts who got there with a two-homer game on Friday night and Stone Garrett who mashed 25 during his lone season as a Sod Poodle in 2021.

FOSSIL FILE: Dylan File turned in his fourth quality start on the bump for Amarilo and the first since May 18th against Frisco. File entered the night with at least four runs allowed in each of his last four and three games with 6+ earned runs charged to him. His recent stretch came after a run of five straight games where he didn't allow more than two earned in a start from April 27-May 24th. File's four quality starts are tied for the second-most by an Amarillo pitcher behind Billy Corcoran and his six straight quality starts.