San Antonio had a lead to protect and no room to breathe when Eric Yost entered with the bases loaded in the fifth inning. His first two pitches brought home two runs, and what had been a one-run Missions advantage soon became the inning that swallowed the game.
Amarillo scored five times in the fifth, turning San Antonio’s 2-1 lead into a four-run deficit before holding off a spirited ninth-inning rally for a 9-6 victory Saturday at Hodgetown.
Jamie Hitt had kept the Sod Poodles mostly contained through four innings, but Junior Franco, Jean Walters and Danny Serretti opened the fifth with singles. Yost took over with the bases loaded and nobody out, inheriting all three runners.
Two run-scoring wild pitches pushed Amarillo in front. Cristofer Torin followed with a ground-ball single into right, through the space between Sanabria and second baseman Wyatt Hoffman, to score Serretti and make it 4-2. All three runners Yost inherited came around.
The inning kept stretching. Yost recorded two forceouts, but a walk to Druw Jones and a hit batter reloaded the bases. Gavin Logan ripped a liner into the left-center-field gap, beyond the reach of Kai Roberts. Angel Ortiz and Jones scored on the double, although San Antonio kept the damage from growing when Jack Costello retrieved the ball and relayed through Justin DeCriscio to catcher Brendan Durfee, who cut down Carlos Virahonda at the plate.
The out ended the inning. By then, Amarillo led 6-2.
Hitt took the loss after being charged with four earned runs in four innings. He struck out four and walked one. Yost allowed five earned runs over the final four innings without a strikeout.
San Antonio had built its lead with a compact rally in the third. Roberts and Romeo Sanabria walked, and Alex McCoy’s groundout advanced both. Albert Fabian brought Roberts home with another groundout before Costello pulled a 2-2 pitch through the right side, past a diving Logan, to score Sanabria.
That 2-1 advantage held until the fifth. Once it disappeared, the Missions spent the rest of the afternoon trying to retrieve it.
Sanabria drove in Kerrington Cross with a two-out single in the seventh, drawing San Antonio within 6-3. Costello doubled in the eighth, his second hit of the game, but the Missions could not bring him home.
Amarillo answered in the bottom half with the blow that made the ninth-inning comeback too steep. Logan and Franco singled before Serretti launched a three-run homer over the right-field berm, sending the ball beyond the concourse and giving the Sod Poodles a 9-3 lead.
Serretti finished 3-for-4 with a walk and three RBIs. Logan went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs.
The Missions still made Amarillo work for the last three outs. After Roberts drew a one-out walk from Sawyer Hawks, Sanabria drove a towering shot deep to right for his ninth homer. McCoy attacked the next pitch and sent it beyond the video board in left-center, giving San Antonio back-to-back home runs and cutting the deficit to 9-6.
Fabian then reached on a throwing error, and Costello walked to bring the potential tying run to the plate. Hawks induced an infield-fly popup from DeCriscio before Amarillo summoned Will Mabrey, who retired Durfee on a popup to end it.
The ninth showed how much offense San Antonio could still summon. It also sharpened the cost of the fifth: three late runs and two emphatic swings could not undo the five-run inning that had forced the Missions to chase.
Sanabria went 2-for-3 with two walks, a home run and three RBIs. Roberts reached three times and scored twice, while Costello finished 2-for-3 with a double and two walks. San Antonio collected eight hits and scored three runs in the ninth, but Amarillo’s five-run fifth and Serretti’s three-run eighth proved enough to withstand the finish.