Sports stats



TL1 San Antonio Missions

Missions win home finale over I-37 rivals

September 1, 2009 - Texas League (TL1)
San Antonio Missions News Release


After the Missions bullpen worked six innings on Sunday night, Manager Terry Kennedy knew he needed a good outing out of his starter to help rest some weary arms. As it turned out, he got just what he was looking for. Will Inman tossed seven solid innings and the Missions offense plated seven runs through the first four frames to help San Antonio salvage the final game of the series with a 7-2 win over Corpus Christi at Wolff Stadium Monday night.

Inman (6-4) snapped a personal three-game losing streak, allowing two earned runs on just four hits and a walk over 7.0 innings pitched, striking out six. It marked his highest strikeout total since returning to San Antonio from Triple-A Portland on August 3rd.

"His changeup was really good today," noted Kennedy. "He had three pitches going for strikes. That's hard to combat."

The Missions' offense also showed signs of life for the second straight night. Four different Missions logged multi-hit games to pace a 12-hit attack, putting Corpus Christi in an early hole. Eric Sogard reached base four times, going 2-for-3 with two walks, a double, two runs scored and an RBI out of the leadoff spot. He reached in each of his first three plate appearances, scoring twice.

"I'm cautious, but I'm definitely encouraged by the middle of the lineup," said Kennedy of the recent hitting success.

The Missions scored first, plating a pair in the bottom of the second. After Lance Zawadzki singled with one out, Seth Johnston hit a high drive to right-center field that carried over the wall for his ninth home run of the season. It was Johnston's first dinger since July 12 at Tulsa when he went deep off of Chaz Roe.

San Antonio struck for two more in the third, as Sogard led off with a walk and moved to second on Cedric Hunter's single. Logan Forsythe and Craig Cooper each followed with RBI singles to score Sogard and Hunter, respectively, making it 4-0 San Antonio.

Corpus Christi scored in the top of the fourth, as Jason Castro singled with two outs and Jimmy Van Ostrand doubled him home. But any momentum that may have built for the Hooks was short-lived as San Antonio struck for three more in the bottom of the frame.

Mitch Canham led off the bottom of the fourth with a single and scored on Sogard's one-out double. With two outs, Forsythe singled home Sogard and moved up to second on the throw home. Cooper followed with another RBI single to cap the scoring for the home side, making it 7-1.

That also chased Hooks starter Sergio Perez (10-11), who lasted just 4.0 innings, yielding seven runs, all earned, on 10 hits and three walks while striking out five. Danny Meszaros tossed four innings of shutout relief for the Hooks to close the game.

Corpus Christi was without their best player, outfielder Drew Locke, who broke a bone in his hand when he was hit by a pitch on Sunday night. The All-Star will miss the remainder of the Texas League season.

After losing the first two games of the series, the Missions avoided a three-game sweep by the Hooks with the victory on Monday. It would have been the first three-game sweep by an opponent of San Antonio at Wolff Stadium since Tulsa did so July 6-8, 2006.

The final regular-season home game drew an above-average Monday night crowd of 4,111, helping the Missions squeeze over the 300,000 mark in season attendance. They have drawn 300,669 with at least two more playoff games to come.

San Antonio closes the regular season with four games at Midland starting on Tuesday, followed by a Labor Day weekend three-game set at Corpus Christi. The Missions return home for Game One of the Texas League Division Series on Wednesday, September 10th at 7:05 pm.

W: Inman (6-4); L: Perez (11-10); S: None; HR: Johnston (9)

Check out the San Antonio Missions Statistics



Texas League Stories from September 1, 2009


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central