Amarillo Sod Poodles are one victory away from winning it all
In 2019, the Amarillo Sod Poodles started their existence with a bang. Affiliated with the San Diego Padres, they rode a crew of now-MLB contributors to a minor league base ball Texas League championship right off the bat. The next year, they became affiliated with the Arizona Diamondbacks and finished with a losing record. Year three saw them go .500.
Now, they're just one win away from taking the Texas League a second time.
The Soddies lost to the San Antonio Missions in game one of the Southern Division finals. They fell behind 6-0, forced extra innings only to lose all the same. They went on to win two games in San Antonio to advance to the Texas League finals. Sunday saw them take a tense 3-2 victory over the Arkansas Travelers in game one of the championship.
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The best-of-three series now moves to Hodgetown for game two on Tuesday night. The start time for that game had not yet been announced as of press time. Should there be a game three, it will be played Wednesday at Hodgetown with the time TBD.
The Soddies have gotten here thanks to a ton of different contributors throughout the year. Players like Jordan Lawler, Ryan Bliss and Chad Patrick are now gone after playing large roles in Amarillo's success. However, others are still around and making big plays.
Guys like Deyvison De Los Santos and A.J. Vukovich have been strong players all year long and that continued on Sunday. De Los Santos' double in the sixth scored Vukovich to put the Soddies up 3-2. Vukovich leads the team in home runs with 24, RBI with 96, and is the active leader for stolen bases with 20. De Los Santos has 20 homers and 61 RBI.
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Sunday saw newer players breaking through as well. Kristian Robinson has only played five games with the squad yet his double to score Seth Beer tied the game in 4th and Robinson later scored on an error to put Amarillo ahead.
Tim Tawa, Neyfy Castillo and Caleb Roberts have been getting it done all year while Ivan Melendez and Adrian Del Castillo have been doing it all in the second half. Regardless of when they came along, it's been a true team effort from this group that's gotten them to this point.
There's still one more win to get. Given that Amarillo came back from a game down to get to this point, it's not certain it'll win it all. But the Soddies have an opportunity to win their second championship in four years of existence and to get it done in their home stadium. That's something everyone in the Panhandle can get excited for.
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This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo Sod Poodles one win from Texas League Double-A championship
