SPRINGFIELD, MO (July 17, 2026) -- The Amarillo Sod Poodles (9-10, 45-42) defeated the Springfield Cardinals (12-7, 43-44), 9-5, on Friday night at Route 66 Stadium. After an offensive outburst to kick things off coming out of the All-Star Break, the Soddies took the series opener to kick off the quick three-game set.
In his first career plate appearance at the Double-A level, Trent Youngblood drew a walk as the second batter of the game in the first inning, moving over to third on Demetrio Crisantes’ one-out single. On a ball chopped to first base off the bat of Jansel Luis, Youngblood sprinted home and slid home safe to get the Soddies on the board in the opening frame.
That would only scratch the surface of what became a six-run frame to get Amarillo off on the right foot. Ben McLaughlin and Druw Jones drove in runs with back-to-back RBI singles. Later in the inning with the bases chucked, Junior Franco brought everyone home on a double off the left-center field wall, capping the crooked inning to give the Sod Poodles an early 6-0 advantage.
Finding themselves in a deep hole, Springfield began to fight back in the third as Dakota Harris’ leadoff single was followed by a Jesus Baez two-run blast to put two ticks in the run column for the Cardinals.
Springfield closed the gap a little more in the following inning, using a Jon Jon Gazdar run-scoring single to make it a 6-3 ballgame.
The Soddies had yet to plate another run since the first inning until the top of the eighth rolled around when Jones got things started with a leadoff walk. After stealing second, he jogged home on Franco’s second RBI two-bagger of the night as the lefty peppered the same gap he doubled to earlier in the game, breaking the Amarillo scoring drought.
With ducks on the pond for Jones in the ninth, the center fielder singled up the middle to plate the pair, giving the visitors a six-run advantage. The lead gave Alfred Morillo plenty of room to work with as the flame-thrower entered out of the bullpen for Amarillo in the ninth. The right-hander allowed two runs on a Rainiel Rodriguez double and a Ryan Campos single, but was able to induce a game-ending double play ball to secure the 9-5 Soddies win.
POSTGAME NOTES
SIX FIGURES: Amarillo’s six-run first inning tonight was only the second of it’s kind as the Soddies have plated at least six in the opening frame only once on the road in franchise history, last doing so on July 22, 2022 at Midland.
FRANCO, MY DEAR...: Driving in four runs tonight with a pair of doubles was Junior Franco...for the month of July, the outfielder is batting .357 (10x28) with 5 XBH, 7 RBI, and a 1.058 OPS over 9 games...he becomes the first Soddie in club history to collect two or more doubles and four or more RBI out of the ninth spot in the order.