Chase Call had watched the Hooks’ three-run lead disappear, their one-run response vanish almost immediately and a promising eighth inning come down to one swing. With two outs and the bases loaded, Call drove a sharp liner into center field, scoring Will Bush and Jack Moss to break a tie and send Corpus Christi to a 6-4 victory over the Midland RockHounds on Tuesday night at Momentum Bank Ballpark.
Call’s two-run single off Kenya Huggins supplied the final margin, but it also rescued a night that had begun as Alejandro Nuñez’s birthday celebration.
Nuñez, who turned 22 on Tuesday, came up in the second inning after singles by Moss and Alberto Hernandez. He crushed Braden Nett’s 1-0 pitch high toward the right-field line, leaving little question that it would stay fair or clear the wall. The three-run homer, his second, gave the Hooks a 3-0 lead.
Nuñez finished 1-for-3 with a walk and three RBIs. The blast remained Corpus Christi’s defining swing until Call delivered six innings later.
Midland spent the middle of the game steadily erasing that early advantage. Cameron Leary’s two-out single scored Euribiel Angeles in the second, and Pedro Pineda brought home Casey Yamauchi with a fourth-inning single off Trey Dombroski. Dombroski exited later in the inning after allowing two earned runs and striking out six over 3 1/3 innings.
The Hooks restored some room in the fifth through Zach Daudet, who was making his Double-A debut. Daudet and Justin Thomas Jr. drew walks before Anthony Huezo sent a drive over Leary’s head in right. The ball skipped to the wall, Daudet scored and Huezo pulled into second with his first Double-A hit, an RBI double that pushed the lead to 4-2.
Huezo went 1-for-5. Moss, the other debuting Hook, went 1-for-2 with two walks and scored twice.
That cushion lasted only through the bottom half. Jared Sprague-Lott reached on a throwing error, Angeles lined an RBI double to left and Ali Camarillo followed with a single to right that scored Angeles, completing Midland’s comeback at 4-4.
The tie held until Corpus Christi forced Huggins to work in the eighth. Bush walked with one out, Moss followed with another walk, and after Hernandez flied out, Nuñez drew a third free pass to load the bases. Call then split the outfield with the two-out liner. Bush scored easily, Moss followed him home and Nuñez stopped at third as the Hooks reclaimed control.
Call’s only hit in four at-bats carried two RBIs and turned the bullpen’s work into a winning effort.
Jose Guedez allowed one earned run over 2 1/3 innings, striking out three without a walk. Andrew Marrero stranded runners at the corners when he entered in the sixth, beginning a stretch in which Corpus Christi pitching retired the final 10 Midland batters.
Marrero worked 2 1/3 scoreless innings for his first win, including a perfect seventh and eighth. Railin Perez took over in the ninth and gave Midland no opening, striking out Clark Elliott before retiring Sprague-Lott and Brennan Milone to earn his fifth save.
The Hooks’ bullpen combined for 5 2/3 innings, allowing one earned run with five strikeouts and no walks. That steadiness mattered on a night when Corpus Christi committed two errors and Midland collected nine hits.
The Hooks finished with eight hits of their own. Three runs belonged to Nuñez’s birthday swing. The last two—and the game—belonged to Call.