Tirso Ornelas sent a drive toward the center-field wall in the ninth inning, and for a moment San Antonio’s comeback had room to dream. The ball cleared the fence for his 17th home run, pulling the Missions within one after they had spent four innings steadily cutting into a deficit that once stood at four runs.
The rally stopped there. Carlos Rey struck out Romeo Sanabria and Albert Fabian to close a 7-6 Amarillo victory Tuesday at Hodgetown, leaving San Antonio’s six runs on 10 hits one swing short.
Ornelas finished 2-for-5 with a double and a home run, supplying the first and last jolts of a night that bent away from the Missions in the middle innings.
San Antonio grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first. Kai Roberts opened with a single before Ornelas drove a ball to the wall in center for his 33rd double, scoring Roberts. Sanabria followed with a single to right that brought Ornelas home.
Victor Lizarraga surrendered a solo homer to Cristofer Torin in the bottom half but held Amarillo there through the third. The fourth became the game’s hinge.
Torin reached on shortstop Justin DeCriscio’s throwing error, the only error by either club. Avery Owusu-Asiedu followed by crushing a two-run homer off the flagpole beyond right-center, turning San Antonio’s 2-1 advantage into a 3-2 deficit. Angel Ortiz doubled, Ben McLaughlin singled and Druw Jones brought Ortiz home with a forceout before Lizarraga escaped the inning.
McLaughlin deepened the damage in the fifth. After Ortiz drew a two-out walk, McLaughlin lifted a two-run homer to left, off the roof beyond the fence, and pushed Amarillo ahead 6-2. Lizarraga completed five innings but allowed five earned runs, walked three and struck out five.
The Missions did not produce one explosive answer. They kept returning, one run at a time.
DeCriscio singled with two outs in the sixth and moved to second on a Luis Verdugo walk. Brendan Durfee then hit a grounder that deflected off pitcher John West and reached left field, scoring DeCriscio. Amarillo answered against Carlos Medina with three singles and Torin’s sacrifice fly, restoring a four-run margin at 7-3.
That was the Sod Poodles’ final run. Medina worked two innings, allowing one earned run with two strikeouts and no walks, before Sadrac Franco kept Amarillo scoreless in the eighth despite two singles.
San Antonio’s climb continued while its pitchers held the line. Alex McCoy doubled to begin the seventh, advanced on an Ornelas flyout and scored on Sanabria’s groundout. Sanabria drove in two runs in the game, while McCoy went 2-for-5 with a double and a run.
Verdugo made the deficit feel smaller in the eighth. His line drive to left left the bat at 104 mph and carried just high enough to clear the wall for his ninth home run. Verdugo’s solo shot made it 7-5 and ensured the Missions would bring the top of the order to the plate in the ninth.
McCoy grounded out before Ornelas launched the ball over the center-field fence. It was San Antonio’s fourth straight inning with a run, a methodical comeback after Amarillo had scored six times from the fourth through the sixth.
But no one reached after Ornelas completed his trip around the bases. Rey’s consecutive strikeouts sealed a game in which the Missions owned the first two runs, scored the final four and still could not recover the ground they lost in between.