SAN ANTONIO –
The San Antonio Missions began their 2019 home schedule with a dramatic win Tuesday night in front of 6,345 at Wolff Stadium. Mauricio Dubon’s walk-off, two-run single in the bottom of the ninth sent the sellout crowd into a frenzy and gave the Missions the 6-5 win.
Trailing 5-4 in the bottom of the ninth, Lucas Erceg drew a leadoff walk. Two batters later, Jake Hager stepped up to the plate as a pinch hitter and delivered his second pinch hit of the young season to move Erceg to second. Corey Ray then struck out, putting the game on the bat of Dubon who came through with the game winning base hit up the middle.
Erceg swatted a pair of home runs while Adrian Houser picked up right where he left off on Opening Night. The right-hander twirled six scoreless innings and allowed just four hits while striking out six.
Memphis’ Austin Gomber was on a roll as he retired the first 13 batters he faced before running into trouble in the fifth. Tyler Saladino drew a walk and came into score when Nate Orf smoked a double over the head of left fielder Lane Thomas. Erceg then provided the muscle as he swatted the first home run at The Wolff of the season beyond the right field fence to make it 3-0.
The Redbirds jumped on a rehabbing Jeremy Jeffress in the seventh inning, plating three runs on four hits in the frame. San Antonio responded in the bottom of the inning as Erceg took Ryan Meisinger deep for his first career multi-homer game. Memphis continued the back-and-forth affair as Yairo Muñoz served a solo home run over the left field fence to knot the score at 4-4 in the top of the eighth and the Redbirds added another run in the ninth before Dubon’s heroics.
Post-Game Notes
- With the win the Missions improved to 4-2 on the season.
- Jeremy Jeffress in his second rehab appearance with San Antonio: 1.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 20 pitches/15 strikes.
- It was the first multi-home run game of Lucas Erceg’s career.
- With Houser’s six-inning performance, San Antonio remains the only team in the Pacific Coast League to have their starter last at least five innings in each game this season.
Game two of the three game set is scheduled for Wednesday at Wolff Stadium. Right-hander Bubba Derby (0-0, 1.80) is scheduled to start for San Antonio while right-hander Genesis Cabrera (0-0, 11.57) is slated to get the start for Memphis. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.