AMARILLO, TX (September 13, 2026) -- The Amarillo Sod Poodles (41-28, 77-60) fell to the San Antonio Missions (28-41, 59-79), 11-10, on Sunday afternoon at HODGETOWN. Going into today with a chance to break the single-season franchise wins record, the Soddies fell just short of history and now look ahead to Tuesday night for their first playoff game against Frisco.
Romeo Sanabria led off the game with a base knock to get the wheels spinning early for the Missions. While Mason Marriott recorded two strikeouts in an attempt to prevent any damage, Kerrington Cross unloaded on an inside 3-2 fastball for a two-run homer that put San Antonio in front in the first inning.
It wouldn’t take long for Amarillo to mount a response as Avery Owusu-Asiedu stepped up to the dish with two outs in the home half of the first and lined an 0-2 breaking ball at the knees off the scoreboard in left-center field to put the Soddies on the board.
An inning later, Druw Jones singled to lead off the frame and stole his 38th base of the season. Carlos Virahonda checked in later that inning with an RBI double grounded down the left field line to plate Jones and tie the game.
John West had entered the game out of the bullpen for Amarillo to begin the second inning and got through three shutout relief innings with a pair of strikeouts to keep the game tied.
Both offenses were quiet until the bottom of the fifth when two singles to lead off the inning gave way to a Danny Serretti three-run moonshot to center field as the 444-foot blast gave Amarillo the three-run advantage.
San Antonio countered with a five-run top of the sixth that included a three-run homer off the bat of Luis Verdugo, a solo blast from Sanabria, and an RBI single from Cross to put the Missions up by two. The visitors plated two more in the seventh on a sac fly and an Alex McCoy RBI single before Justin DeCriscio homered an inning later to extend the lead to six.
A single and double kicked things off for the Sod Poodles in the bottom of the eighth before Ben McLaughlin laced his second triple of the year to bring home two runners. It would be Alberto Barriga who collected the RBI knock later in the inning to drive home McLaughlin and bring the Soddies within three.
Joe Ariola came on to pitch the ninth and despite allowing a pair of singles that put runners aboard for the Missions, the lefty was able to strike out the side and give Amarillo one more fighting chance in their final turn at-bat.
Owusu-Asiedu scored on a double play before McLaughlin homered to make it an 11-10 game with two outs. Virahonda sent one to center that had the makings of a routine flyout, but the center fielder lost the ball in the sun to give Virahonda his second two-bagger of the game. With the catcher now representing the tying run, Barriga had a chance to erase the deficit, but his hard-hit liner was snagged by the Missions’ third baseman to end the comeback attempt.
POSTGAME NOTES
STANDOUT SODDIES: Amarillo finishes the regular season with a 77-60 record, tying for the most wins in a single season in franchise history...on the Texas League leaderboard, Cristofer Torin ranked 3rd in runs (91), 4th in hits (139), 9th in batting (.281)...Ben McLaughlin finished 10th in RBI (74) which led the team while ranking 6th in the league in hits (124) and 8th in doubles (26)...Druw Jones placed 5th in stolen bases (38) and 10th in runs (80)...Carlos Rey tied for the most appearances of any Texas League pitcher (51) and tied for 3rd in the Texas League in saves (8).
YES SERRETTI: Homering in his third consecutive game with his fifth inning three-run blast this afternoon was Danny Serretti...it is the sixth time this season a Sod Poodle has homered in three or more straight games.
With a win over San Antonio on Tuesday in addition to Midland's loss to Corpus Christi, the Amarillo Sod Poodles officially punched their ticket to the postseason! They will match up with the Frisco RoughRiders (Texas Rangers) – the First Half winners of the Texas League South – at 6:35 p.m. on Tuesday, September 15 at HODGETOWN for game one of the Divisional Round.