Sod Poodles Drop Back and Forth Game Three In San Antonio

San Antonio, Texas (May 25, 2023) – Amarillo dropped their Thursday night contest in San Antonio 5-4 in a game that saw four lead changes. Despite out-hitting the Missions, the Sod Poodles were held scoreless over the games' final two innings.

The first three San Antonio batters of the game tallied hits to hold a 1-0 lead after the first inning. Amarillo starter Luke Albright induced a double play and earned his first strikeout of the night to limit the damage to a single run.

With neither side getting anything going in the second inning, Amarillo finally got the wheels turning at the plate in the top of the third. The first three batters the Sod Poodles sent to the plate collected hits to load the bases. The first run came across after Jordan Lawalr was hit by a pitch before Caleb Roberts drove in another run on a fielder's choice to give Amarillo the 2-1 lead.

Amarillo kept getting aboard when it was their turn to hit in the top of the fourth. Deyvison De Los Santos started the inning with a single before Adrian Del Castillo followed him aboard with a single of his own and moved De Los Santos to third as Amarillo had runners on the corners and chased the Missions starter from the game. A productive groundout was enough to score the Sod Poodles third run of the night, giving Amarillo the 3-1 lead.

San Antonio collected a pair of hits of their own off Albright in the bottom of the fifth and both runners would cross the plate to even the game.

After a clean sixth inning from both sides, Amarillo regained their advantage in the top of the seventh. Seth Beer drove in his second RBI in as many games with his third hit of the series to make it a 4-3 game. A two-RBI double in the bottom of the seventh would give San Antonio a lead that the Sod Poodles were unable to match.

Left-hander Kyle Backhus pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth for Amarillo to send the game to the final inning with Amarillo trailing by two runs.

Lawlar collected the Sod Poodles lone hit in the final two innings, hitting a single in the top of the ninth with one out.

Game four of the six-game series continues on Friday from San Antonio. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. and will feature RHP Jamison Hill for Amarillo and lefty Jackson Wolf for the Missions.

NOTES:

THREE FROM THE LAW: Arizona Diamondbacks no. 1-rated prospect, Jordan Lawlar picked up a three-hit night at the plate for Amarillo. It marked his first three-game of the season and just his third three-hit night in 55 games in Double-A since his promotion in late August of last season. He notched his fifth double of the year, crushing a ball down the left field line that one-hopped over the fence.

BETTER IN PAIRS: Amarillo was powered by four players having multi-hit nights at the plate. Along with Lawalr, Ryan Bliss collected a pair of hits as did Deyvison De Los Santos and Tim Tawa. Amarillo now has 91 multi-hit games from players this year, led by Bliss' 22. The next closest player for total multi-hit games is Juan Centeno, who has 11 in 26 games played this season.

RISP-Y BUSINESS:Amarillo was 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position on Thursday night, leaving eight runners on base. Through the first three games of the series, Amarillo is hitting 7-for-34 (.206) with runners in scoring position. On the season, Amarillo ranks third in the 10-team Texas League, hitting .271 (105-for-387) in the situation and only trail Midland (.281), and NW Arkansas (.279) who have hit for a better average with runners on second or third.

HE IS BACK-HUS: After hurling another clean inning on Thursday, Kyle Backhus has three-straight games without an earned run allowed over 4.0 IP during the mini-streak. In 14 appearances this year, Backhus has 10 games without a run allowed, and this three-game stretch comes after a three-game period May 6-14 where he allowed at least a run in every outing. In 25 total appearances for Amarillo since first appearing in a game on August 7, 2022, Backhus has 19 scoreless outings.

QUALITY STUFF: Amarillo starter Luke Albright provided Amarillo with their first quality start this season. The right-hander gave Amarillo 6.0 IP with three earned runs allowed off seven hits while adding seven strikeouts. The six innings were Albright's most of the year and his longest outing by innings since he also went 6.0 IP on Sept. 4, 2022 with High-A Hillsboro. Since turning pro, Albright has spun a quality start in all six games where he went the minimum 6.0 IP to qualify for a quality start.