A beautiful night in Frisco; a little shade, a little breeze and the second game of a six game homestand with Amarillo for the hometown RoughRiders. Frisco was coming off a 7-5 victory Tuesday night where Bubba Thompson, Josh Stowers and Blaine Crim all went yard against the Sod Poodles. Wednesday night, the starting pitchers took the spotlight.
Noah Bremer got the start for Frisco and Kenny Hernandez was on the bump for Amarillo. The Sod Poodles (34-45) opened up the scoring when Buddy Kennedy took Bremer deep in the top of the second inning well over the LF deck and into the trees, actually hitting the light pole, to give Amarillo the early 1-0 lead.
It did not take long for the RoughRiders to answer, as Bubba Thompson homered to straight-away center field over the 409' mark to tie the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the third. It was his second homer in as many nights. Bremer had retired 11 Sod Poodles in a row before walking a batter in the fifth but then got Jancarlos Cintron to groundout to retire the side.
Bremer would exit the game after pitching 5 innings and allowing only one run on two hits while striking out three. Texas Tech alumni and Rangers #1 ranked prospect Josh Jung, gave Frisco the lead 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth when he hit an opposite-field two-out double to drive in Bubba Thompson. Blake Bass and Tai Tiedemann relieved Bremer and each worked a scoreless inning with Bass striking out two and Tiedemann working out of a jam after allowing a lead-off double to Ryder Jones.
Things would get interesting in the eighth inning. Fernery Ozuna came in to pitch for Frisco and hit the first batter he faced, Cintron. Ozuna then committed a balk that allowed Cintron to advance to second base. Alek Thomas hit a laser over the head of center-fielder Bubba Thompson for a triple to drive in the tying run for Amarillo. After a strikeout of Dominic Fletcher, Ozuna gave up a sacrifice fly to Stone Garrett and the Sod Poodles had regained the lead, 3-2.
Frisco had a chance in the bottom of the eighth when they had runners on first and second with nobody out, but newcomer Blaine Crim grounded into a double play and catcher Melvin Novoa grounded out to first and the Riders stranded the tying run at third base. The combination of Jeff Bain, Matt Brill and Blake Rogers blanked the Riders for three innings and combined to strike out five in relief of Kenny Hernandez.
Jeff Bain got the win for Amarillo after pitching a scoreless seventh and striking out the side. Blake Rogers picked up the save after he shut the door in the bottom of the ninth. Fernery Ozuna took the loss for Frisco. The RoughRiders remain atop the South Division in AA Central, eight games ahead of the Midland RockHounds. RoughRiders are 6-4 in their last 10 games.
The fun themes and promotions continue Thursday night at Dr. Pepper Ballpark as Truly® hosts Party at the Yard and the RoughRiders will honor pop star Britney Spears with a #FreeBritney shirt and they'll also play her songs throughout the evening. Frisco will send LHP Cody Bradford to the hill to face off against RHP Drey Jameson Thursday night at 7:05 p.m. CST.
