Amarillo blanks Northwest Arkansas

SOD POODLES 5, NATURALS 0

SPRINGDALE — A night after scoring 16 runs on Tuesday evening, Amarillo’s pitchers silenced the Northwest Arkansas bats.

Three Sod Poodle pitchers combined on a two-hitter to help Amarillo to a 5-0 win over the Naturals on Wednesday night at Arvest Ballpark.

Naturals shortstop Morgan McCullough doubled to lead off the bottom of the eighth and broke up the no-hitter. He was the first hitter facing Sod Poodles reliever Kyle Backhus, but was stranded at third to as the inning ended.

Naturals manager Tommy Shields said the game of baseball is just strange, after rolling over the Sod Poodles 16-6 on Tuesday. But then the Naturals were no-hit for seven innings.

“It’s just the way the game is, you can never figure it out,” Shields said. “They threw the ball well tonight. They didn’t give us a whole lot to hit. I don’t think we saw [Bryce] Jarvis very good. I think he had a lot of deception. We didn’t see him. I thought the key point in the game was when we gave them two in the seventh. If it’s a 2-0 games, it’s a whole different ballgame.”

Tristan English and Adrian Del Castillo each hit solo homers to give the Sod Poodles the lead. They added two more in the top of the seventh and one in the ninth.

Northwest Arkansas drew a couple of walks from Sod Poodles reliever Christian Montes De Oca, but he stranded runners at second and third by striking out Jake Means.

Amarillo starter Bryce Jarvis (2-1) threw five innings of no-hit, no-run ball to pick up the win He struck out eight and walked four.

Amarillo pushed its lead to 2-0 as Adrian Del Castillo led off the fifth with a solo homer. Naturals starter Anthony Veneziano worked out of further trouble though.

The Sod Poodles added two unearned in the top of the seventh to push the lead to 4-0 aided by a Naturals’ error and a wild pitch by Northwest Arkansas reliever Jonah Dipoto.

The Naturals had their three-game winning streak snapped, while Amarillo had lost three of four.

Northwest Arkansas had scored 57 runs in winning four of five, but it couldn’t solve Sod Poodles pitching.

Sod Poodles first baseman Tristin English led off the top of the fourth with a solo home run to give Amarillo the 1-0 lead.

Northwest Arkansas put a runner at third with two outs after Jarvis’ errant pick-off throw. But Jarvis bounced back to strike out Peyton Wilson to end the threat.

Amarillo threatened in the top of the first as English doubled with two outs and went to third on a wild pitch by Veneziano (1-1). But the left-hander struck out Deyvison Del Los Santos to leave him at third.

The Sod Poodles put a runner in scoring position in the second, too. A.J. Vukovich slapped a one-out single to left and stole second. But Veneziano ended the inning with backto-back strikeouts.