SAN ANTONIO (Aug. 21, 2026) — Northwest Arkansas Naturals (19-30) southpaw starter Hunter Owen dished out eight strikeouts across 6.1 scoreless innings to keep the San Antonio Missions (22-26) offense quiet. The Naturals’ offense used two deep sacrifice flies to center field to score two runs in the opening frame and added six more runs the rest of the nights in the 8-1 Missions loss.
Luke Pelzer and Javier Vaz got going quickly against Missions starter Victor Lizarraga with a single and a walk. Pelzer and Vaz were aggressive early as baserunners with a double steal to place themselves into scoring position. Sam Kulasingam and Spencer Nivens sent two productive deep shots to Kai Roberts in center field to score their teammates off a pair of sacrifice flies.
Lizarraga seemed to settle a bit in the third stanza setting down the Naturals leadoff order but ran into trouble the following frame off a Nivens leadoff triple. Northwest Arkansas then jumped all over Lizarraga with consecutive base hits to score two more runs. Missions reliever Harry Gustin attempted to stop the bleeding for San Antonio, but the Naturals kept rolling, scoring another two runs off back-to-back base hits to extend their lead 6-0.
Owen dominated on the mound against the Missions, delivering four 1-2-3 innings while only surrendering a double to Albert Fabian and two hits to Jack Costello. Owen danced through a bit of trouble in the bottom of the fifth after allowing a walk to Ryan Jackson and a fielder’s choice in which Costello reached. Jackson and Costello teamed up for extra bases in a successful double steal following a Luis Verdugo lineout, but Owen put out the danger with two straight punchouts.
Francis Peña retired three Naturals in the sixth stanza and kept them scoreless in their next turn. Clay Edmondson got out of a bases loaded jam by way of the K in the eighth inning after starting it off with two punchouts. Johan Moreno was unable to keep the Northwest Arkansas lead from growing after allowing a leadoff triple to Kulasingam, leading to an eventual run off a Daniel Vazquez RBI single. Vazquez then scored one more run for the Naturals after another RBI single as the Naturals lead grew 8-0 with Wyatt Hoffman, infielder and son of MLB Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman, on the mound.
Tirso Ornelas scored in the ninth inning off a Costello base hit following his leadoff double to salvage the Missions from being shutout in their 8-1 loss.
Up Next:
The Missions and Naturals continue their six-game series Saturday at 7:05 p.m. Join us for Congo Falls Night as we partner with the San Antonio Zoo to celebrate their new gorilla habitat, Congo Falls! Enjoy a wild night at the ballpark spotlighting wildlife conservation and one of the zoo's newest exhibits. The Missions will wear special Congo Falls-themed jerseys, which will be auctioned off after the game. Stick around after the game for a wild postgame fireworks show presented by Bud Light. Catch all the action on Country Legends KKYX, 680 AM, 104.9 FM and kkyx.com. Tickets are available at samissions.com or by calling 210-675-7275.
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The San Antonio Missions are the Double-A affiliate for the San Diego Padres. The Missions were established in 1888 and have brought affordable family fun to the Alamo City for more than 120 seasons. The 13-time Texas League champions play their home games at Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium. For more information and tickets, call 210-675-7275 or visit samissions.com.