The Amarillo Sod Poodles (5-7, 41-39) defeated the San Antonio Missions (6-6, 37-44), 1-0, on Sunday night at Nelson Wolff Stadium. One run in the first inning was all the spark Amarillo needed to walk away victorious in the series finale with San Antonio, getting brilliant pitching performances from top to bottom to do so.
The Sod Poodles used some small ball to help manufacture an immediate one-run lead. Cristofer Torin led off the top of the first inning with an infield single and moved up to second base on an Anderdson Rojas sac bunt, which allowed him to score easily on Jansel Luis’ RBI double that rolled to the left field wall.
Pitching and defense excelled for the Sod Poodles through the night, starting with Alberto Barriga mowing down a potential base stealer in each of the first two frames to help out Soddies starter Adonys Perez in his second outing of the week, who didn’t need much more assistance over his 3.2 innings pitched.
The southpaw turned in his best appearance since joining Amarillo, holding the Missions scoreless on four hits and striking out a season-high five batters for the second time in 2026. The biggest punchout came in the bottom of the second inning when Perez induced Francisco Acuna to chase a backfoot slider for the third out after a pair of two-out hits.
In the bottom of the fourth, Jack Hurley made up for an error he made earlier in the frame that placed a runner in scoring position, taking away a run with a diving catch on the right field line for the final out to keep San Antonio off the board.
After Perez’s night was done, Amarillo went to the bullpen often, using five different relievers to record the last 16 outs. After Indigo Diaz finished off the fourth, the Soddies trotted out a trio of flamethrowers in Blake Cederlind, Sandro Santana, and Alfred Morillo to maintain their 1-0 lead until the ninth.
Carlos Rey was called upon for the save, but allowed the tying run to reach base on a leadoff single by Tirso Ornelas. Superb base stealer Kai Cunningham pinch ran for Ornelas, but was quickly sent back to the dugout when the southpaw picked him off for the first out.
