SAN ANTONIO, TX (July 4, 2026) -- The Amarillo Sod Poodles (4-7, 40-39) fell to the San Antonio Missions (6-5, 37-43), 8-1, on Saturday night at Nelson Wolff Stadium. San Antonio didn’t wait until the sun set to start the fireworks on Independence Day, as the Soddies found themselves down 8-0 at the end of three frames, and could not recover.
The Missions hung six on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second inning during a frame in which the Sod Poodles didn’t do themselves any favors. After a one-out single for the first Missions baserunner of the evening, a throwing error put runners on the corners, who both scored on Albert Fabian’s two-run triple tucked just inside the first base line.
Soddies starter Daniel Eagen hit the next two batters, which, after an Ethan Salas sacrifice fly to extend San Antonio’s advantage to 3-0, set the table for Kai Cunningham to drive in three more when he banged an opposite-field three-run homer off the left field foul pole.
Eagen continued to get hit fairly hard in his third inning of work, beginning with a line drive solo home run by Braedon Karpathios to open the frame. His bad luck also continued when Jack Hurley lost what could have been the third out of the inning in the sun that led to a double for Francisco Acuna, who came around to score on a Wyatt Hoffman single in the next at-bat.
Amarillo’s offense finally broke through in the top of the sixth, starting with a leadoff double off the bat of Alberto Barriga. Two batters later, Anderdson Rojas lined a base hit up the middle to plate Barriga and get the Sod Poodles in the run column for the first time since Thursday.
The Sod Poodles threatened in their next turn to bat against familiar foe Tucker Musgrove, who was charged with both runs in their ninth-inning comeback on Wednesday. Amarillo used a single and a pair of walks to load the bases with one out before a pop out and a strikeout ended the last Soddies threat of the night.
The Missions secured a series victory with their Independence Day win. The Sod Poodles will turn to southpaw Adonys Perez to try and gain some momentum in Sunday’s series finale at 6:05 p.m. before returning home to open a six-game set with the Arkansas Travelers on Tuesday.
POSTGAME NOTES
PUT A CORC’ IN IT: Billy Corcoran turned in 4.0 scoreless innings out of the bullpen, the longest relief outing by an Amarillo pitcher this year...he was a large part of why the Sod Poodles held San Antonio scoreless from the fourth inning on, allowing just one hit and walk each while striking out four.
I’M McLAUGHLIN IT: Sod Poodles first baseman Ben McLaughlin put together the only multi-hit night for Amarillo in tonight’s game, giving him 11 hits for the year against San Antonio...the total is the second-most on the team as McLaughlin trails only Jansel Luis with 13, and both men are tied for the most doubles (3) off Missions pitching this season.