Telis powers Frisco to 5-3 win over Hooks

FRISCO, TEXAS (May 8, 2014) - Tomas Telis put on a show at Dr Pepper Ballpark Thursday night in a 5-2 win over the Hooks. Telis hit a three-run homer in the third and flashed some leather by going 3-3 when throwing out would-be base stealers.

RoughRiders starter Kyle Lotzkar (0-2) cruised through the first two frames facing seven Hooks batters but his control momentarily escaped him in the third inning. M.P. Cokinos drew a one-out walk and advanced to third on a single hit to right off the bat of Nolan Fontana and Andrew Aplin drew the second walk off the inning to load the bases. It wouldn't burn Lotzkar, however, as he escaped the threat getting Matt Duffy to pop out to 'Riders centerfielder Jake Skole.

Skole, in the box against Hooks starter Luis Cruz (3-3), carried over the momentum when he led off the bottom half of the third with an infield single. He later scored from first on an Edwin Garcia double to deep left-center making it 1-0 RoughRiders.

Frisco (21-12), still batting with runners on the corners and two outs, extended the lead to 4-0 on one pitch hit over the fences courtesy of a red-hot Telis.

Lotzkar pitched three scoreless innings, gave up two singles and issued three walks in a no-decision. Cruz pitched four innings and gave up four runs on seven hits.

Jon Edwards came on in relief for the 'Riders in the fourth and retired the first two batters he faced, but surrendered one run following two singles and a walk. Hooks left-fielder Chris Epps singled to left and was singled home on Cokinos' hit to right field making it 4-1 Frisco. Edwards limited the damage to one by getting Joe Sclafani to pop out to center.

Corpus Christi (17-16) scratched across their second run of the game off of Jimmy Reyes who came on in relief of Edwards. It began with an Aplin one-out single to right and Duffy ripped a double down the third base line to make it 4-2 'Riders.

After a scoreless sixth inning Teodoro Martinez scored an insurance run on Chris Grayson's RBI single to right, which pushed the lead to 5-2 Frisco.

The Hooks made things interesting in the top of the ninth by loading the bases off of Phil Klein with no one out, and they cut the deficit to two on a Duffy sacrifice fly to right. Klein battled back to get Preston Tucker to ground out to the shortstop Garcia and the game ended with Frisco winning 5-3.

Keone Kela earned his first win of the season by throwing two innings of shut out baseball and Cruz was credited with the loss.

Game two of this series takes place tomorrow at 7:05 at Dr Pepper Ballpark. Righty Alec Asher (2-3, 4.41 ERA) gets the ball for Frisco and will face off against Kyle Smith (0-1, 10.80 ERA). For tickets to see the 'Riders in 2014, call 972-731-9200, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.ridersbaseball.com.