SAN ANTONIO, TX (July 1, 2026) -- The Amarillo Sod Poodles (4-4, 40-36) defeated the San Antonio Missions (3-5, 34-43), 2-1, on Wednesday night at Nelson Wolff Stadium. Held off the scoreboard until the final inning, the Soddies came through in the clutch to earn the one-run win and even the series.
Amarillo strung together back-to-back one out singles in their first turn at bat, but were unable to scratch the game’s first run in the opening frame. Carson Tucker lined a single up the middle for San Antonio on the first pitch he saw and moved up to second base on a sacrifice bunt to lead things off in the bottom of the first. Ashton Izzi stranded the runner however, keeping the game tied at zero by the end of the first.
The Missions threatened again one inning later when Braedon Karpathios smacked a leadoff triple and later scored on Albert Fabian’s sacrifice fly. That would be all Izzi would allow for the inning, keeping the Amarillo deficit within a run.
As the stalemate carried on through the fifth inning, Ben McLaughlin. led off the sixth with a single. Following him with a walk to put two runners on was Druw Jones, giving the Soddies their best chance of the night to scratch a run, but Josh Mallitz held strong for the Missions on the mound, retiring each of the next three batters to escape the jam.
Izzi trotted back out of the dugout for the seventh after already having met the minimum threshold for a quality start. The righty induced two groundouts before Sandro Santana relieved him, bringing his night to a close after 6.2 innings and six strikeouts.
Amarillo was set down without a run in the eighth, but Santana gave the Soddies a fighting chance after chucking a bottom half of the eighth that was capped by a swinging strikeout of Kai Roberts on a nasty sweeper.
Jack Hurley drew a walk to begin the ninth and quickly moved up to third on two wild pitches. Matt O’Neill found his way aboard with a walk and Junior Franco came through when it mattered most as the drawn-in San Antonio infield was unable to chase down a blooper that just cleared the dirt, bringing Hurley around to score the tying run.
With the bases loaded, Demetrio Crisantes chopped one to second, allowing the go-ahead run to sprint home with ease, and Amarillo all of a sudden held the lead, putting San Antonio up against their final three outs. Carlos Rey entered in a save opportunity and converted it, retiring the side in order while striking out a pair to complete the 2-1 Sod Poodles win.
POSTGAME NOTES
KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES: While he was held out of the hit column tonight, bringing his career-long hit streak to an end, Druw Jones still reached base twice, continuing a stretch of play where he has been an on-base machine...he has reached base safely in 29 of his most recent 30 games, good for a .462 OBP.
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NOT TOO SHABBY, IZZI?:** Turning in the longest start of the year by a Sod Poodle tonight was Ashton Izzi...his 6.2 innings of one-run ball earned him the quality start...in his most recent five road starts, he is 3-0 with a 0.98 ERA (3 ER/27.2 IP) with 26 strikeouts and only five walks.