Romeo Sanabria’s Late Homer Vaults Missions Over Hooks 

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – With the game tied at three in the eighth inning, Romeo Sanabria clubbed what turned out to be the game-winning home run as the Missions escaped with a series-opening 4-3 win over the Hooks.

San Antonio’s bullpen got the job done again, as Jake Higginbotham struck out five batters across two scoreless innings in his Missions debut. He turned it over to Bradgley Rodriguez, who shut the Hooks down with an electric two-inning save to cap the comeback.

The Hooks began the night by jumping on Missions starter Jackson Wolf. Luis Castro belted a leadoff home run, Colin Barber doubled and Pascanel Ferreras singled before Wolf could record an out. Logan Cerny proved to be that first out, but his groundout scored Barber and put the Hooks up 2-0 in the first.

San Antonio, however, managed to answer right away. A perfectly executed hit-and-run by Joshua Mears placed runners at the corners with two outs, setting up Texas League Player of the Week Devin Ortiz. The former Virginia Cavalier lived up to that title, singling home Moisès Gòmez to cut the Corpus lead in half.

Wolf settled down and finished three innings, allowing the Missions offense to stay in the game. In the top of the fourth, the offense came through. Ethan Salas tied things up with a sacrifice fly, and then Mears got caught in a rundown between first and second that allowed Gòmez to sneak in from third with the go-ahead run.

After a clean start out of the bullpen, Josè Espada’s second inning of work became a bit more uncomfortable. Back-to-back doubles by Ryan Johnson and Bryan Lavastida tied it up at 3-3, but Espada kept it there and stranded Lavastida in scoring position.

Higginbotham then dazzled with five strikeouts in two scoreless innings to keep the game tied. This set up the missile from Sanabria to right field, placing the Missions ahead 4-3.

Rodriguez entered and retired the first five Hooks batters. Miguel Palma singled with two outs in the ninth and advanced to second on a balk, but Rodriguez secured the win by forcing Ryan Johnson into a weak tapper back to the mound.

UP NEXT:

The Missions continue their six-game series in Corpus Christi with a 6:35 p.m. first pitch on Wednesday. Victor Lizarraga makes his season debut for San Antonio while Joey Mancini does the same for the Hooks. Catch all the action on Country Legends KKYX, 680 AM, 104.9 FM and kkyx.com.