Midland Steals Christmas in July as San Antonio Loses Heartbreaker
TL San Antonio Missions

Midland Steals Christmas in July as San Antonio Loses Heartbreaker

July 26, 2025 - Texas League (TL)
San Antonio Missions News Release


SAN ANTONIO - The Missions decked the halls and welcomed Christmas in July at The Wolff. Donning Christmas-themed jerseys, the team felt its share of Christmas Joy early, but the Ghost of Missions past reared its head late as the San Antonio Missions (11-15, 50-45) were defeated in extras by the Midland RockHounds (13-13, 52-43) 8-6.

Though San Antonio's uniforms brought the North Pole to the Wolff Saturday night, the south side of the bump got the first look of action as left-hander Jagger Haynes (mistle) toed the rubber to lead things off. Haynes, coming off four scoreless innings against Amarillo on Sunday to lead San Antonio to their last victory, hoped to bring upon the same result.

In the top half of the second, Junior Perez did his best impression of the Grinch. After Haynes walked Euribiel Angeles to start the inning, Perez decided to steal early Christmas joy, swatting a two-run home run onto the left field berm to put the RockHounds in front 2-0.

Despite control being an issue, Haynes finished the day strong and picked up six strikeouts over his five-frame outing. The home run by Perez became the left-hander's lone blunder as he allowed the resulting two runs on three hits total while walking three RockHounds.

Playing from behind, the Missions cleared the goose egg sitting in the hit column after Anthony Vilar walloped a fly ball to dead center that recoiled off the warning track and found its way over the fence for a two-out ground rule double. Unfortunately, just like waiting to open presents on Christmas Day, the San Antonio offense would have to postpone bringing any runs across as Midland picked up the final out to hold the Missions at bay.

Stephen Jones relieved Haynes in the top of the sixth inning, becoming the first pitcher to emerge from Luke Montz's San Antonio workshop. The righty allowed back-to-back singles to the first two Midland bats he faced but glided out of trouble, coming back to strike out two of the next three batters to get the game back into the control of the Missions' lumber.

Unlike prior turns on offense, gifts around the proverbial Christmas Tree littered the sixth inning. With one away after Vilar led off the inning with a walk, Francisco Acuña grounded out to push the runner to second. A wild pitch unleashed by RockHounds reliever Pedro Santos followed the second out of the inning to advance Vilar to third,and when Midland backstop Cole Conn recovered the ball, he attempted to throw out Vilar at third. The throw from Conn sailed away to allow the first San Antonio run to come across.

Now with the Missions cutting Midland's advantage to 2-1, Romeo Sanabria singled and stole second to move into scoring position. Albert Fabian then got a knock of his own as he lined a ball to right fielder Brennan Milone. With Sanabria chugging around the diamond set on scoring the tying run, Milone came up with the ball and fired wide to allow both the tying run to score as well as Fabian to arrive at second.

With the game tied 2-2, a third two-out single would be the final gift of the inning as Devin Ortiz grounded an opposite field base hit to allow Fabian to score, giving San Antonio the 3-2 lead.

Jones remained on for the seventh, gaining the first out of the frame before surrendering a single to Drew Swift. The base hit transitioned the ballgame to Tyson Neighbors as Montz once again utilized the San Antonio bullpen. Neighbors closed out the inning, holding the game in favor of the Missions.

Carrying the 3-2 advantage as the seventh inning stretch ended and the home half of the inning began, the San Antonio offense went down in order to push the game to the top of the eighth. Neighbors walked Shane McGuire to lead off the inning but closed out the inning without any resulting runs.

Ethan Routzahn replaced Neighbors after the Missions went hitless in the bottom of the eighth. Seeking the save, the Missions closer induced a groundout before running into trouble. Brayan Buelvas lined a double down the left field line to represent the game tying run. Routzahn then picked up the second out of the inning, and with one out separating the Missions from victory, Swift issued the game-tying blow in the form of an RBI single to make the game 3-3. Routzahn completed the innin,g but with the game now knotted up, the Missions' offense once again went hitless in the ninth, and the game moved to extra frames.

Midland got their first attempt in extras with Colby Halter as the RockHounds' ghost runner. Milone singled to put runners on the corners, and McGuire followed with a single of his own to give the RockHounds the 4-3 lead. Euribiel Angeles bunted the runners over for the first out, and Montz had Routzahn intentionally walk Luke Mann to load the bases.

With the bases juiced, Perez reclaimed his role of the Grinch, hammering a triple to clear the bases and increase Midland's newfound advantage to 7-3. With Midland erupting offensively, Jose Geraldo took the ball from Routzahn. A wild pitch allowed Midland to bring home one more run to make the game 8-3 RockHounds before the inning came to a close.

Midland closer Shohei Tomioka took the hill in the bottom of the tenth to complete the comeback, but the Missions would make their best attempt to work their way back into the game. Marcos Castañon began the inning with a double before Tomioka retired the next two batters. With two gone in the inning, Acuña came up seeking his first hit of the series and crushed a two-run blast to get San Antonio within two to make the game 8-6. The RockHounds got Sanabria to fly out, however, finalizing the 8-6 extra inning comeback victory for Midland.

UP NEXT:

The Missions conclude their six-game series against the Midland RockHounds on Sunday evening with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 pm. Henry Baez (3-2, 1.96) gets the mound call for San Antonio while Midland's Kyle Robinson (1-5, 4.79) starts for the RockHounds. Sunday is Six Flags Kid's Day! The first 250 kids (48" & under) will receive a FREE admission voucher to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. Kids also get to run the bases after the game. 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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Texas League Stories from July 26, 2025


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