Kevin Kopps, a 2021 San Diego Padres draft pick, made his Missions debut on Wednesday at Wolff Stadium.Kevin Kopps was a third-round pick by the San Diego Padres in the 2021 draft in July.
Over the course of the summer he has jumped from the University of Arkansas to rookie ball to Class A Fort Wayne and then to Double-A.
Kopps made his Double-A debut on Wednesday night at Wolff Stadium. He pitched the ninth inning for the San Antonio Missions in a 4-0 loss to the Corpus Christi Hooks.
The 6-foot, right-hander struck out two batters, had a hit-by-pitch and got the other out on a fly ball. He is expected to see more action with the Missions before their season ends Sunday.
The Houston native pitched in 92 games in his college career at Arkansas, mostly as a reliever. He had seven starts and 13 saves.
Kopps earned the Golden Spikes Award, Dick Howser Trophy, first-team All-American honors and D1Baseball and Collegiate Baseball national player of the year for the 2021 college season.
Missions center fielder Esteury Ruiz catches a deep fly ball against the fence on Tuesday.The Corpus Christi Hooks hit four home runs to beat the San Antonio Missions 9-4 on Tuesday.
The Missions Ethan Skender hit his first home run since joining the team Aug. 27.
The Hooks got two homers from Enmanuel Valdez and one each from Cesar Salazar and Joe Perez.
Kyle Overstreet hit his fourth home run of the season in the Missions’ victory over the Sod Poodles.Kyle Overstreet homered in the second inning to start the San Antonio Missions’ scoring and Olivier Basabe hit a three-run blast in the third in Sunday’s 7-4 victory over the Amarillo Sod Poodles.
The Missions put up four runs in the second inning and led the rest of the way. Overstreet led off with his fourth homer of the season. Chandler Seagle had a two-run double and Ethan Skender drove in Seagle.
Missions starting pitcher Pedro Avila went four innings and allowed one run. Sam McWilliams, the Missions’ first reliever of the night, contributed two innings and got the win. Nick Kuzia pitched the ninth inning and earned his fifth save.
The Missions play their next six games on the road. They end their season with six games at Wolff Stadium beginning Tuesday, Sept. 14.
Pedro Avila – San Antonio Missions
Kyle Overstreet – San Antonio Missions
Chandler Seagle – San Antonio Missions
Ethan Skender – San Antonio Missions
Olivier Basabe, Kyle Overstreet – San Antonio Missions
Missions shortstop Eguy Rosario makes a throw to first on a grounder to the left side.The Amarillo Sod Poodles beat the San Antonio Missions for the third night in a row with a 6-3 decision on Saturday at Wolff Stadium.
Amarillo’s Stone Garrett hit his 18th home run of the season, a two-run shot in the third inning. The Sod Poodles had 10 hits including four doubles and one triple. The Missions had six total hits, including two by Olivier Basabe, and no extra-base hits.
All three Missions runs crossed in the bottom of the third. Basabe scored on Eguy Rosario’s sacrifice fly, Esteury Ruiz scored on a wild pitch and Ethan Skender scored on Kyle Overstreet’s sacrifice fly.
Allen Cordoba hit a second-inning double that led to the San Antonio Missions’ only run on Friday at Wolff Stadium. – photo by Joe AlexanderThe Amarillo Sod Poodles pounded out 16 hits including three home runs to beat the San Antonio Missions 8-1 on Friday at Wolff Stadium.
Amarillo’s Ryder Jones homered in the first inning, Dominic Canzone homered in the second and Dominic Miroglio homered in the eighth.
The Missions only run came in the second inning, when Allen Cordoba doubled and scored on another double by Michael Curry. Cordoba had two of the Missions’ six hits.
Agustin Ruiz hit his fourth home run as a member of the Missions.The Amarillo Sod Poodles scored four runs in the top of the eighth inning to rally past the San Antonio Missions 6-5 on Thursday night at Wolff Stadium.
The Missions got eight hits including a two-run, seventh-inning homer by Agustin Ruiz. Eguy Rosario had two hits including his 28th double of the season.
Missions starting pitcher Osvaldo Hernandez went five innings and allowed two runs on five hits and no walks with six strikeouts. Reliever James Reeves pitched the last five outs for the Missions and took the loss.
The Missions’ Ethan Skender (center) celebrates with teammates after his walk-off hit in Wednesday’s second game at Wolff Stadium.Ethan Skender ended a five-hour, 14-inning night of baseball with a walk-off hit to give the San Antonio Missions a doubleheader sweep of the Amarillo Sod Poodles at Wolff Stadium.
GAME 2: MISSIONS 5, SOD POODLES 4
Skender singled with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning of the second game, bringing home Kelvin Melean with the winning run in a 5-4 Missions victory.
The Missions’ Allen Cordoba scored a key run in the bottom of the sixth. He stole second and then went all the way around to third and home on two throwing errors on the play. That tied the game 4-4.
Allen Cordoba – San Antonio Missions
Allen Cordoba – San Antonio Missions
Kelvin Melean – San Antonio Missions
Ethan Skender – San Antonio Missions
Ethan Skender – San Antonio Missions
Kelvin Melean – San Antonio Missions
Esteury Ruiz, Ethan Skender – San Antonio Missions
Ethan Skender – San Antonio Missions
Ethan Skender – San Antonio Missions
Ethan Skender – San Antonio Missions
GAME 1: MISSIONS 2, SOD POODLES 0
The Missions limited the Sod Poodles to one hit to win the first game 2-0. Juan Fernandez hit his eighth home run of the season and Eguy Rosario’s sacrifice fly scored Olivier Basabe with the other run.
Missions starting pitcher Brandon Komar, who has usually been a reliever this season, went five innings and allowed only one hit and one walk with three strikeouts.
Brandon Komar – San Antonio Missions
Juan Fernandez – San Antonio Missions
Olivier Basabe – San Antonio Missions
Olivier Basabe slides into home on Eguy Rosario’s sacrifice fly to score the Missions’ second run in Wednesday’s first game at Wolff Stadium. – photo by Joe Alexander
Missions infielder Kelvin Melean pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning.The Amarillo Sod Poodles hit two home runs and took advantage of San Antonio’s early errors to beat the Missions 9-4 Tuesday at Wolff Stadium.
The game was the opener of a seven-game series. The Missions and Sod Poodles have a 5 p.m. doubleheader Wednesday at Wolff Stadium.
The Sod Poodles scored single runs in the first and second innings while the Missions committed three errors in the first three innings.
Amarillo got a two-run homer from Dominic Canzone in the fourth inning and a three-run shot from Ryder Jones in the seventh.
The Missions got two hits each from Esteury Ruiz and Ethan Skender. Skender had run-scoring hits in the fifth and ninth innings.
Missions starting pitcher Pedro Avila (0-3) went four innings and took the loss. He allowed five runs (three earned), three hits including one home run, one walk and struck out five.
Missions infielder Kelvin Melean pitched the ninth inning. He retired the Sod Poodles in order with most of his pitches in the mid to high 50s on the radar.
The Missions’ Dwanya Williams-Sutton (left) greets Olivier Basabe at the plate after they both scored on Basabe’s fifth-inning home run.Olivier Basabe had two hits including a fifth-inning home run but the San Antonio Missions fell to the Midland RockHounds 4-3 on Sunday at Wolff Stadium.
Basabe’s home run came after Dwanya Williams-Sutton led off the bottom of the fifth with a walk. That cut into what had been a 4-1 RockHounds lead. Neither team scored again after Basabe’s homer.
Basabe also scored the Missions’ first run of the game. He doubled with one out in the third and scored on a single by Esteury Ruiz.
Missions starting pitcher Jerry Keel worked five innings, allowed four runs and took the loss. Missions relievers Henry Henry, Sam McWilliams and Sam Williams combined for four innings of scoreless relief.
Williams-Sutton has reached base in 16 straight games. Michael Curry had his 16-game on-base streak come to an end.
The Missions are off Monday and begin a six-day, seven-game home series against the Amarillo Sod Poodles on Tuesday at Wolff Stadium. The series includes a 5 p.m. doubleheader on Wednesday.
The Missions’ Esteury Ruiz watches his fifth-inning home run fly out in left field.Esteury Ruiz’s eighth home run of the season lifted the San Antonio Missions to a 4-2 victory over the Midland RockHounds on Saturday at Wolff Stadium.
Ruiz homered in the bottom of the fifth after Augustin Ruiz led off the inning with a single and Chandler Seagle reached base on an error. The three-run blast pushed the Missions in front after the RockHounds had taken a 2-1 lead in the first two innings.
Esteury Ruiz scored the Missions’ first run on a sacrifice fly by Allen Cordoba in the bottom of the first.
Three Missions pitchers combined to hold the RockHounds scoreless over the final seven innings.
Missions starter Tyler Viza picked up his first win since being signed to a minor league contract 10 days earlier by the San Diego Padres – and his first win in affiliated pro baseball since June 20, 2019.
Viza allowed one run in each of the first two innings. He went on to complete six innings and didn’t give up any more runs. The 6-foot-3 right-hander allowed four hits and two walks with four strikeouts.
Tom Cosgrove pitched two scoreless innings in relief and Carlos Belen pitched the ninth inning for his second save of the season.
The Missions’ Michael Curry walked in the fourth inning to extend his on-base streak to 16 games.
