Mother Nature, though, assisted, as the Sod Poodles didn’t finish their series with the Corpus Christi Hooks this past weekend.
After splitting four straight series both home and away, the Soddies were guaranteed a series win when their scheduled series finale against Corpus Christi was rained out Sunday evening. The game isn’t scheduled to be made up, so after winning three of the first five games of the series. the Sod Poodles were the series winners, 3-2.
They’ll have a chance to win a second straight series for the first time this year as they stay at home this next week for their only back-to-back six-game weeks at Hodgetown of the season. The Soddies will host the Arkansas Travelers on Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. in the first game of a six-game series.
Going into the weekend, the Sod Poodles (23-27 in the second half of Texas League play) were guaranteed no worse than a split of the series after winning three of their first four games.
The Hooks won 11-7 on Saturday, opening up the possibility of a fifth straight series split for the Soddies before weather got in the way to end the series.
In their first two games of the series, the Sod Poodles had perhaps their best back-to-back offensive performances of the season. They opened the series with an 11-6 win Tuesday, hitting a season-high six home runs in the victory.
Wednesday was an even more dominant performance, as the Sod Poodles rolled to a 13-1 win. They broke the game open with nine runs on nine hits in the bottom of the second to take a 10-0 lead.
Walk-off Roberts
If it’s a close game at Hodgetown in the ninth inning (or later), Caleb Roberts is who Sod Poodles fans love to see come to the plate, because he more often than not delivers.
For the third time this season, Roberts got a walk-off game-winning hit Friday night, this time hitting a towering two-out, two-run homer to right which gave the Sod Poodles a 5-4 victory after they trailed 4-1 entering the inning. It was his second walk-off homer of the season, as he hit a solo blast with two outs in the bottom of the ninth in a 3-2 win over Frisco on May 18.
In between those two dramatic moments, Roberts had a two-out, two-run single in the 10th to beat Northwest Arkansas 10-9.
Tawa, Patino called up
When the series started, two familiar faces were promoted from Amarillo by the Soddies’ parent club Arizona Diamondbacks. Infielder Tim Tawa and outfielder Wilderd Patino were promoted to Class AAA Reno last Tuesday. Tawa still leads the Texas League with 21 homers.