Missions Smack Seven Homers to Shock RoughRiders 

FRISCO, Texas (Aug. 27, 2025) – With football season around the corner, it would be easy to confuse Wednesday night’s baseball game at Riders Field for a battle on the gridiron. That’s because the San Antonio Missions (20-33, 59-63) erupted for seven home runs—their most in a game since April 15, 2011—to win 14-11 over the Frisco RoughRiders (25-28, 63-58).

The Missions trailed 4-1 in the second and 10-6 in the seventh inning, but San Antonio stormed back repeatedly to claim an incredible victory over the RoughRiders. Braedon Karpathios homered twice, his first two Double-A long balls, and Chris Sargent, who the San Diego Padres signed out of the Pioneer League today, lifted a big fly during his first game ever in affiliated baseball. Marcos Castañon hit two homers himself, birthday boy Moisès Gòmez joined with one and so did Devin Ortiz. Four of the Missions’ round-trippers came in the seventh inning, when they scored eight runs to take a lead they never gave up.

Frisco scored first against Missions starter Eric Yost on a Luis Mieses infield single, but Castañon immediately tied the game against Frisco starter Leandro Lopez with the first of his two bullets in the second. The RoughRiders struck right back in the bottom of the second on Aaron Zavala’s three-run homer, the first of his three long balls.

The back and forth started early, however, because San Antonio answered with three in the third to even things up at four. This included Gomez’s solo homer to celebrate his 27th birthday.

With both bullpens officially in control of the game, Karpathios golfed a go-ahead homer onto the left-center field berm to make it 5-4 San Antonio in the top of the fifth. An errant throw later in the sixth made it 6-4, but that advantage barely lasted.

Cole Paplham, making his 2025 Missions’ debut as he continues to battle back from two line drives to the face over the past two years, had a frightening beginning to the sixth. Sebastian Walcott rifled a ball 107mph off the bat directly towards Paplham. It hit the pitcher around the hip, but he stayed in the game. Frisco kept tagging Paplham as Mieses followed Walcott with a hit before Keyber Rodriguez smoked a ball that split the right-center field gap and tied the game at 6-6. Rodriguez then gave Frisco the lead after two consecutive wild pitches from Paplham helped him cross the plate.

The wheels appeared to be falling off when Marcus Smith snuck a ball fair down the right-field line, and it caused enough issues down there to let Smith completely round the bases for a two-run inside-the-park homer. Paplham left the game after this, but Zavala welcomed Jose Geraldo to the game with another opposite-field homer, making it 10-6 Frisco.

Momentum appeared to be fully with the home team, but the Missions pulled a Lee Corso and said, “Not so fast, my friend!” Joey Danielson walked the first two men he faced in the seventh, setting up Ortiz’s three-run blast. Belief started to set in. Danielson got one out after Ortiz, but Castañon then blistered his game-tying shot to left. Suddenly, the game was 10-all.

Larson Kindreich took over for Danielson, but San Antonio wasn’t done. Ryan Jackson singled ahead of Gomez’s RBI double, catapulting the Missions ahead. On the very next pitch, Sargent crushed not only his first homer in the minors but also his first hit in general. Kindreich could barely think when the next pitch after Sargent also left the yard off the bat of Karpathios. All anyone could hear at Riders Field were the cheers coming from an enthused Missions dugout.

Geraldo all of a sudden stood in line for the win. He managed to complete two innings, but his night did end when Zavala took him deep to complete his tremendous night. Stephen Jones recorded the last out in the eighth before stranding a lead-off single in the ninth, officially closing the door on one of the wildest games of the season, if not Missions’ history.

UP NEXT:

The Missions and RoughRiders continue their six-game series on Thursday at 7:05 p.m. Lefty Jagger Haynes (3-3, 4.35) starts for San Antonio while righty David Davalillo (2-3, 2.30) goes for Frisco. Catch all the action on Country Legends KKYX, 680 AM, 104.9 FM and kkyx.com. Tickets are available at samissions.com or by calling 210-675-7275.

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The San Antonio Missions are the Double-A affiliate for the San Diego Padres. The Missions were established in 1888 and have brought affordable family fun to the Alamo City for 123 seasons. The 13-time Texas League champions play their home games at Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium. For more information and tickets, call 210-675-7275 or visit samissions.com.