For the 5,120 fans who attended Tuesday night’s Amarillo Sod Poodles home opener against the Springfield Cardinals, it was a reminder about the pleasures and perils of baseball at Hodgetown, in case they forgot in the offseason.
The final 16-7 score, in favor of the bad guys from Springfield, was a perhaps superficial but nonetheless accurate snapshot of what Hodgetown can be like, for better or worse. A total of six home runs left the park, most of them to the preferred power alleys of left-center in a game whose final resembled a football score.
All of the first four runs of the game came via solo homers, and the good news for the Sod Poodles (1-3) was that kept them in the game, as starter Roman Angelo in his Double-A debut at the hitters paradise hung tough but ultimately had to leave the game in the fifth. By that time, he’d given up a two-run homer to Chase Davis, Springfield’s leadoff hitter who had a pair of homers and drove in five runs.
The Soddies never led, but it was appropriate that the first run they scored at home in 2025 came via a solo blast to left by catcher Christian Cerda.
It was the first of two homers on the game, as Andy Weber hit a towering two-run blast just left of the center field batter’s eye in the seventh which was the highlight of a rally wihch cut a 9-1 deficit to 9-7.
Cerda and Weber were obvious candidates to go yard for the Sod Poodles in the opener, since both were in Amarillo briefly late last season.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise to the faithful who stayed that an eight-run lead wasn’t entirely safe, and going into the ninth the Soddies had reason to believe they could mount an epic comeback. But that works both ways at Hodgetown.
Springfield scored seven runs in the top of the ninth to officially put away the game. The Sod Poodles helped that cause by committing four errors in the inning.
Troy’s tough time
Second baseman Tommy Troy, the No. 8 prospect in the Sod Poodles parent organization Arizona Diamondbacks, had wildly mixed results in his Hodgetown debut. Hitting in the No. 2 spot, the Stanford product was 0-f0r-2 with two walks and reached when he was hit by a pitch.
The field was even more of an adventure for Troy, who committed three errors. However, he showed a flash of his defensive potential when he leaped and snagged R.J. Yeager’s line drive, then quickly threw to first to double off Leonardo Bernal.
Feeling right at home
For the Sod Poodles who played last season, it’s no surprise that they had the most productive nights at the plate in their return to Hodgetown.
Seven of the nine position players who started the opener played at least a bit for the Soddies last year. Five of them – Weber, Cerda, LuJames Groover, Caleb Roberts and Jose Fernandez – all had at least one hit. Fernandez went hitless in four at-bats last year.
While returnee Kristian Robinson drew two walks and scored two runs, Gavin Conticello, who had a cup of coffee last year in Amarillo, was 0-for-4.
Meanwhile, the two Sod Poodles making their Hodgetown debuts, Troy and centerfielder Jack Hurley, were both hitless.
For a look at the full box score please visit https://www.milb.com/gameday/cardinals-vs-sod-poodles/2025/04/08/782450/final/box