Blaze Pontes inherited a 1-1 game in the ninth inning Thursday night, the kind of late assignment made possible by eight innings of sturdy work from the rest of Midland’s pitching staff. By the time the RockHounds came to bat again, the tie had become a four-run deficit.
Corpus Christi scored four times against Pontes in the ninth, with Chase Call’s two-run double delivering the heaviest blow in a 5-2 Hooks victory at Momentum Bank Ballpark. Pontes allowed four earned runs, four walks and three hits in the inning as Midland’s pitching duel slipped away.
The trouble developed after Pontes issued a leadoff walk to Will Bush. Midland erased Bush on Tyler Whitaker’s force out, but Hector Salas grounded a single into left and moved Whitaker to third. Max Holy followed by punching a ground ball through the right side, scoring Whitaker with the go-ahead run and sending Salas to third.
A wild pitch brought Salas home, and Pontes walked Zach Daudet before Call drove a fly ball into the right-center-field gap. The ball reached the base of the wall beyond Cameron Leary, and both Holy and Daudet scored as the Hooks opened a 5-1 lead.
The collapse spoiled a strong collective effort from Corey Avant, Stevie Emanuels and Micah Dallas. They held Corpus Christi to two hits through eight innings and combined for 14 strikeouts, giving Midland chance after chance to find one more run.
Avant’s command came and went — he walked five — but the Hooks rarely squared him up. The right-hander allowed one earned run over five innings and struck out nine. His sharpest stretch came in the second, when he struck out Whitaker, Salas and Holy in order.
Midland gave Avant a lead in the bottom half. Ali Camarillo opened the inning by lining a double to center and advanced to third on Leary’s flyout. With two outs, Clark Elliott shot a line drive through the left side to bring Camarillo home.
Corpus Christi’s first hit also tied the game. After Whitaker walked in the fourth and advanced on Salas’ groundout, Holy sent a sharp liner up the middle. Casey Yamauchi got a glove on it, but the ball carried into center as Whitaker scored.
Holy finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs and scored during the ninth-inning rally. His two run-scoring singles accounted for the Hooks’ tying run in the fourth and their decisive lead change in the ninth.
The RockHounds had their best chance to answer in the fifth. Yamauchi drew a one-out walk, and Jared Sprague-Lott drove a ball into the right-center-field gap. It rolled to the wall for a double, leaving Yamauchi at third and Sprague-Lott at second.
Jose Guedez replaced Nolan DeVos and shut the opening. Brennan Milone’s grounder to third cut down Yamauchi at the plate, and Euribiel Angeles grounded out to strand both remaining runners.
From there, Emanuels and Dallas kept the tie intact. Emanuels struck out four over two scoreless innings, including all three batters he faced in the sixth. Dallas allowed a leadoff single in the eighth but immediately fielded Jack Moss’ grounder and started a double play through Camarillo and Milone. He then struck out Walker Janek to end the inning.
Midland mounted one last threat against Amilcar Chirinos in the bottom of the ninth. Camarillo walked for the second time, Bobby Boser and Elliott added walks, and Logan Sauve’s bases-loaded force out scored Camarillo. Casey Yamauchi struck out to end it with two runners still aboard.
Camarillo doubled, walked twice and scored both Midland runs. The RockHounds finished with four hits, their early lead and late rally bookending a long stretch in which a second run never arrived — until Corpus Christi had already made it too late.