Amarillo Bats Break Up Pitchers Duel To Extend Win Streak

AMARILLO, TX (July 31, 2026) -- The Amarillo Sod Poodles (17-14, 53-46) defeated the San Antonio Missions (13-18, 44-56), 8-5, on Friday night at HODGETOWN. A pitchers duel through the first five full frames, Amarillo exploded for five runs in the bottom of the sixth and never looked back en route to a fifth straight win.

Not even a comebacker off the bat of Jake Cunningham at 109 miles per hour three batters into the game could knock Daniel Eagen off course on Friday, who turned in six scoreless frames for his longest shutout outing of the season. However, San Antonio’s Andrew Thurman held the Sod Poodles bats at bay for most of the night, facing the minimum through the first 14 plate appearances before Druw Jones broke up the no-hit bid with a two-out bloop single in the bottom of the fifth inning.

The levee broke for Thurman and the Missions in a 0-0 game entering the bottom of the sixth inning with a runner on and one out. Following Gavin Logan’s leadoff walk, the Soddies backstop scored from first base on an Angel Ortiz double to the gap in left center field. Cristofer Torin doubled the lead with his RBI single up the middle, which would spell the end for Thurman.

Garrett Hawkins entered in relief for San Antonio, who the Soddies would rattle three more hits and a fielder’s choice off of to go up by five runs before the Missions could retire the side. All of those runs would prove to be important in the next frame with Adonys Perez making his first appearance since his return from the injured list.

The southpaw would only be able to record one out as a hit batsman and two hits allowed got him into trouble before he walked Kai Roberts to bring in the first Missions run of the game. Alfred Morillo was unable to navigate the three ducks on the pond he inherited, as the inning was extended by a fielding error on a potential double play ball before two more runs scored on a fielder’s choice and wild pitch to cut Amarillo’s lead to one.

The Soddies did not blink with the offense going right back to work to add insurance runs in each of their last two turns to bat. Jean Walters extended Amarillo’s lead to 6-4 by plating Logan with a run-scoring single up the middle in the bottom of the seventh inning while an RBI single off the bat of Jones and a balk scored two more in the eighth.

Morillo was much better in his second inning of work being given a clean sheet in the top of the eighth. San Antonio scored one more time in the top of the ninth with Wyatt Hoffman’s trip around the bases largely aided by defensive indifference, but it would be nowhere near enough to cool off Amarillo’s heater.

POSTGAME NOTES

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES: Druw Jones extended his active hitting streak to 15 games (7/7-c) on a two-out bloop single to break up Andrew Thurman’s no-hit bid in the bottom of the fifth inning, continuing the longest hit streak by a Sod Poodle this season and the longest streak of Jones’ career...it now stands as the longest active hit streak in the Texas League.

EAGEN-KEELED: Daniel Eagen battled through taking a comebacker off his lower left leg to complete 6.0 shutout innings, the longest scoreless outing of his season...now in four career starts against the Missions, he owns a 2.53 ERA (6 ER/21.1 IP) and 0.98 WHIP.