210GAMEDAY.COM | SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
Amarillo piled up 11 hits including five for extra bases.
The Sod Poodles scored four runs in the top of the fourth inning to take a 4-1 lead and the Missions never caught up.
Amarillo will play the Arkansas Travelers in the best-of-three Texas League Championship series beginning Sunday. Arkansas clinched its North playoff series with a 14-1 victory over Springfield.
The best-of-three South Division series will be settled in Game 3 on Friday night at Wolff Stadium.
The winner of the series will play the winner of the North Division playoffs in another best-of-three series beginning Sunday to decide the 2023 Texas League champions.
Graham Pauley’s third hit of the night was a solo home run that put the Missions in front 6-5 in the bottom of the eighth. Nathan Martorella followed with another homer, giving the Missions a 7-5 lead and an insurance run they would need.
The Cardinals scored a run in the ninth to make it closer.
The Missions scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to take a 5-4 lead. Springfield bounced back with a run in the top of the eighth to tie it 5-5.
The Missions’ seventh-inning rally included a two-run homer by Michael De La Cruz and an RBI sacrifice bunt by Ripken Reyes that scored Cole Cummings.
San Antonio starting pitcher Jairo Iriarte didn’t get a decision but had a solid outing. He went five innings and allowed three runs, three hits, two walks and struck out nine batters.
Jason Blanchard pitched two innings in relief, Lake Bachar worked the eighth inning and got the win and Efrain Contreras handled the ninth inning to pick up his fourth save.
Mazur (2-3) allowed five hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
Daniel Camarena pitched the ninth inning to earn his third save.
Missions manager Luke Montz was ejected while arguing a call in the top of the third inning.
Ripken Reyes, Nathan Martorella and Michael De La Cruz all had RBI hits for the Missions. Connor Hollis had two hits and scored twice and Graham Pauley had two hits and scored a run.
The two long balls on a rare night when the wind was blowing out of Wolff Stadium helped carry the Missions to a 4-3 victory over the Springfield Cardinals on Tuesday.
Pauley’s solo shot in the first inning put the Missions in front 1-0. San Antonio scored twice in the fourth inning to go up 3-1. Cummings’ solo homer in the sixth extended the lead to 4-1.
Missions starting pitcher Robby Snelling (2-0) got the win. The 19-year-old left-hander went five innings and allowed one run on five hits with no walks and three strikeouts.
Daniel Camarena earned his second save of the season by retiring all three batters he faced in the ninth inning.
Homer Bush Jr., playing in his first game at Wolff Stadium since joining the Missions, had two hits and an RBI.
Saturday night it was Graham Pauley, who was promoted to the Missions from Class A Fort Wayne on Tuesday.
The 22-year-old left-handed hitter went to the plate in the bottom of the 10th inning with the score tied 5-5 and Ripken Reyes on second base. Pauley hit a single to center to bring in Reyes and end the game, 6-5.
On Tuesday night it was 17-year-old Ethan Salas who had the game-winning hit in his Double-A debut. Pauley and Salas were teammates in Fort Wayne before they moved up to San Antonio on the same day.
Amarillo’s Camden Duzenack scored the only run of the game on a two-out error in the top of the eighth inning.
Jakob Marsee had the Missions’ only hit.
Missions starting pitcher Ryan Bergert had a strong game, pitching six shutout innings and allowing three hits and two walks with nine strikeouts.
Sod Poodles starter Luke Albright (8-5) went five shutout innings to earn the win.
The Missions scored both their runs in the bottom of the eighth after the Sod Poodles built a 4-0 lead. Marcos Castanon scored from third on a ground out and Cole Cummings singled to right to drive in Graham Pauley.
Pauley and Cummings led the Missions with two hits each.
Missions starting pitcher Adam Mazur (0-2) went six innings, allowed three runs and took the loss.
Cummings’ sixth homer of the season produced the Missions’ first two runs of the game and put them in front 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth.
Amarillo tied it 2-2 in the top of the sixth. San Antonio’s Marcos Castanon scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the inning to make it 3-2 and put the Missions in front for good.
Nathan Martorella doubled in the eighth inning to drive in Castanon and extend the Missions’ lead to 4-2. For Martorella, who made his Missions debut on Tuesday, it was his fourth hit in two days in Double-A.
Robby Snelling, who also joined the Missions a day earlier, started Wednesday’s game on the mound and went 3 2/3 innings in his Double-A debut. He allowed one run, two hits and five walks with two strikeouts.
Bobby Milacki (4-3) pitched the next 3 1/3 innings in relief and earned the win. He allowed one run, one hit, no walks and had four strikeouts.
Daniel Camarena went 1 1/3 innings with no runs, two hits, no walks and one strikeout.
Efrain Contreras, who has started 17 games this season, pitched the final two outs and struck out both batters he faced for his third save.
