NORTH LITTLE ROCK, AR (August 6, 2026) -- The Amarillo Sod Poodles (20-16, 56-48) fell to the Arkansas Travelers (17-19, 58-47), 4-1, on Thursday night at Dickey-Stephens Park. Arkansas continued to rely on the long ball for its offense in the series, with two homers and a strong collective pitching effort proving to be enough to defeat the Soddies.
Making his first start of the season with the Sod Poodles, Logan Mercado couldn’t quite get out of the bottom of the first inning unscathed, as Travs first baseman Hunter Fitz-Gerald belted a 1-2 fastball over the wall in right center field for a two-out solo home run.
The long ball would be the only blemish on Mercado’s line, as the right-hander was otherwise excellent in his longest outing of the season. Across four full frames, the right-hander allowed just one other baserunner and retired the last 10 batters he faced before Josh Grosz entered in relief to begin the fifth.
After a scoreless first inning of work, Grosz ran into some trouble when he walked the first two batters he faced to open the bottom of the sixth. Two batters later, Boston Smith sent a heater over the fence in right field for a three-run blast to put the Travelers up 4-0.
On the other side, southpaw Nico Tellache continued to prove he had Amarillo’s number in his third time facing the Soddies this season. After a quality start in the series opener at HODGETOWN on July 7 and five more strong innings five days later, the success continued with six shutout innings at Dickey-Stephens Park on Thursday.
Amarillo’s offense threatened in the first and fifth innings, having multiple runners reach base in those frames. The fifth was their best chance against Tellache, where a pair of singles by Gavin Logan and Jean Walters turned the lineup over with two outs before Angel Ortiz was hit by a pitch to load the bases. However, an Alberto Barriga groundout ended the scoring chance.
The fortune of the Sod Poodles improved once Arkansas went to its bullpen, scratching across a run in the top of the eighth on a Druw Jones sacrifice fly. However, Barriga would be caught retreating back to second base for the final out of the frame.
Lucas Kelly was called upon for his first save opportunity with the Travs and retired the side in order to snap the three-game win streak for the visitors.
POSTGAME NOTES
**
LOG-I BEAR:** Making just the ninth start in his second season as a professional, Logan Mercado took the place of recently traded Daniel Eagen in the rotation and turned in his longest outing at any level this season by allowing one run across 4.0 innings pitched.
SETTING THE BAR-RIGA: Although Alberto Barriga’s eight-game hit streak came to an end on Thursday, he still drew two walks to extend his on-base streak to nine games, the longest among Sod Poodles on the active roster...since the streak started on July 26, the Soddies backstop has a .421 on-base percentage.