Big Seventh Catapults Hooks Over Riders

FRISCO, TX - The Corpus Christi Hooks surrendered a lead but quickly responded to defeat the Frisco RoughRiders by a final score of 6-2 on Saturday night in front of 7,902 at Dr Pepper Ballpark.

With the win, Corpus Christi (45-23) took four out of five games in the set and finished the first half with an 11-5 record against Frisco (37-30).

The Hooks and Riders each got off to slow starts offensively. Frisco starter Connor Sadzeck took the hill for the fourth time this year against Corpus Christi and dealt 5 2/3 innings, yielding six hits, two runs, three walks, striking out nine batters, and not factoring in the decision.

The Hooks finally got to Sadzeck in the fourth. After the RoughRiders starter had stranded four on the basepaths through the first three innings, a solo shot off the bat of Conrad Gregor (his third of the year) put the Hooks on the board. A two-out double by Derek Fisher in the fifth scored Danry Vasquez to make it 2-0 and was the only other run that came in to score on Sadzeck's watch.

In the meantime, David Paulino (4-2) was cruising through the first five innings of his start. He allowed three baserunners and tossed just 55 pitches in the process.

The Riders got to the Corpus Christi starter for two runs to tie the game in the sixth. A sacrifice fly by Ryan Cordell preceded an RBI single off the bat of Ronald Guzman to account for the damage.

Paulino threw six innings, giving up four hits, the two earned runs, fanning six, and issuing no free passes over 74 pitches.

A win for Paulino wouldn't be possible without the offense scoring runs in the seventh inning. They did just that. Mott Hyde, Vasquez, and Alex Bregman led off the inning by reaching base off of reliever Jake Shortslef (0-1) to end his appearance. Joe Filomeno followed by walking Fisher and J.D. Davis to force two runs in. A wild pitch during Nick Tanielu's at-bat made it 5-2. The Hooks' second baseman then hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Fisher and cap the scoring for the evening.

Eric Peterson registered his first save of the season by going three scoreless innings, conceding three hits, no walks, and striking out four RoughRiders.        

Corpus Christi now heads to San Antonio to begin a four-game series with the Missions. First pitch of Sunday's contest will take place at 6:05 pm live from Nelson Wolff Municipal Stadium. Listen to Hooks baseball on Newsradio 1360 KKTX with the pregame show starting at 5:45.