SPRINGFIELD, Missouri (KFDA) – The Amarillo Sod Poodles defeated the Springfield Cardinals 6-4 on Wednesday night at Route 66 Stadium, winning Game Three of the Texas League Championship Series and claiming the franchise\u2019s third Texas League title.<\/p>\n
Early runs and sharp defense<\/p>\n
Amarillo faced Cardinals top-ranked pitching prospect Liam Doyle to start the game. After Doyle recorded two quick outs in the first inning, Carlos Virahonda singled up the middle. Avery Owusu-Asiedu followed with a line drive into the gap in left-center field, and a fielding error by Tai Peete allowed Virahonda to score the first run of the game.<\/p>\n
In the second inning, Jean Walters made a leaping catch to take away a Springfield hit. <\/p>\n
Two Cardinals then reached base, but Amarillo starter Mason Marriott struck out Tre Richardson III and Josiah Ragsdale, ending the threat.<\/p>\n
Springfield answers back<\/p>\n
Springfield took the lead in the third inning on a two-run home run to left field by Rainiel Rodriguez. <\/p>\n
The next two Cardinals batters reached base, and Amarillo recorded its first out of the inning on a fielder\u2019s choice. <\/p>\n
A hit-and-run during Cade McGee\u2019s at-bat drove in a third run for Springfield before Dawson Brown ended the inning with a 1-6-3 double play.<\/p>\n
Amarillo\u2019s defense held Springfield in check through the middle innings. <\/p>\n
Ben McLaughlin made a diving stop on a hard-hit grounder down the first base line to end the fourth inning, and Brown turned his second double play of the game in the fifth, keeping the score at 3-1.<\/p>\n
Sod Poodles tie it in the sixth<\/p>\n
Owusu-Asiedu opened the sixth inning by reaching base on an infield single after his grounder drew an errant throw from the shortstop. <\/p>\n
Druw Jones followed with a double that landed just out of reach of Springfield\u2019s right fielder. <\/p>\n
Angel Ortiz then lined the first pitch he saw through the left side of the infield, driving in both runners and tying the game.<\/p>\n
Go-ahead homer in the seventh<\/p>\n
Cristofer Torin led off the seventh inning with a double to left field for his first hit of the game. <\/p>\n
Springfield recorded two outs but could not fully work around Torin\u2019s leadoff double before Owusu-Asiedu hit one to left-center field for a two-run home run, putting Amarillo ahead.<\/p>\n
Springfield loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the seventh, prompting Amarillo to bring in reliever Carlos Rey; Rey struck out both batters he faced to end the inning with the bases loaded.<\/p>\n
Bullpen holds off late rally<\/p>\n
In the eighth inning, back-to-back singles put Amarillo runners at first and third, and a groundout by Walters drove in an insurance run. <\/p>\n
Springfield drew two walks to open the bottom of the eighth, ending Rey\u2019s outing. <\/p>\n
Reliever Alfred Morillo entered and needed only four pitches to record a double play and a groundout, closing out the inning without allowing a run.<\/p>\n
Domenic Picone pitched the ninth inning for Springfield, allowing a single to Virahonda but striking out the side.<\/p>\n
Morillo returned to pitch the bottom of the ninth for Amarillo and struck out the first batter he faced. <\/p>\n
Springfield responded with a walk and a double, and Rodriguez scored on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to two runs. <\/p>\n
Morillo then struck out Won-Bin Cho and Ryan Campos to end the game, giving Amarillo a 6-4 win and the Texas League Championship.<\/p>\n
Third title in franchise history<\/p>\n
The championship marks the third Texas League title for the Sod Poodles, achieved in the organization\u2019s seventh season. <\/p>\n
The team has won more Texas League titles and recorded more playoff victories (14) than any other Texas League team.<\/p>\n
Amarillo also improved to 12-1 all-time in elimination games with the win. <\/p>\n
The Sod Poodles lost the first game of both the South Division Series against Frisco and the Championship Series against Springfield, but went on to win all four elimination games they played this postseason.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KFDA. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPRINGFIELD, Missouri (KFDA) – The Amarillo Sod Poodles defeated the Springfield Cardinals 6-4 on Wednesday night at Route…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[254,2055,2060,2058,2057,2059,2061,27,29,28,2056],"class_list":["post-445880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-live-speeches","tag-live-updates","tag-live-video","tag-press-conference","tag-real-time-coverage","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-video-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}