CORPUS CHRISTI - The Hooks earned a 4-0 victory Wednesday at Whataburger Field as a result of two critical errors by the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.
CORPUS CHRISTI - The Hooks earned a 4-0 victory Wednesday at Whataburger Field as a result of two critical errors by the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.
Entering a scoreless bottom of the fourth, Abraham Toro reached on an error to begin the inning against Royals top prospect Brady Singer. After two straight outs, J.J. Matijevic singled and Singer beaned Stephen Wrenn to load the bases. Colton Shaver then hit a hard grounder directly to third baseman Gabriel Cancel, who let the ball go five-hole into left field. The Naturals lazily relayed the ball back in, allowing Wrenn to score all the way from first to make it 3-0 on the play.
Corpus Christi added another run in the seventh on an errant throw by shortstop Kevin Merrell on an Osvaldo Duarte grounder that brought Chuckie Robinson around from second.
The woes for NW Arkansas translated on offense as they went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and racked up 13 punchouts.
Enoli Paredes (W, 2-2) led the charge on the mound, firing 6.0 scoreless frames with nine punchouts, two walks and two walks allowed. The performance extended his Whataburger Field dominance to 22.0 scoreless innings in his Hooks career, allowing just six hits with 35 strikeouts in four games (3 starts).
Willy Collado (S, 3) worked 3.0 perfect innings with four strikeouts to end the game. Paredes and Collado combined to toss Corpus Christi's seventh shutout of the season, ranking second in the Texas League to Arkansas' nine.
Singer (L, 2-2) was charged with three unearned runs over 6.0 frames, allowing two hits and a walk to go with six strikeouts.
The teams combined to go 0-for-18 with runners in scoring position.
The teams square off in the rubber match Thursday at 6:15 p.m. with J.B. Bukauskas (1-4, 5.91) slated for the Hooks against Gerson Garabito (5-6, 4.04).
