Hooks break tie, hold off Naturals

SPRINGDALE — Corpus Christi scored two runs in the top of the ninth to snap a 1-1 tie and the Hooks claimed a 3-1 win over Northwest Arkansas in front of a paid attendance of 6,143 on Thursday afternoon at Arvest Ballpark.

Much of the crowd was in town for the Walmart shareholders’ meeting.

The Hooks (23-25) rallied against Northwest Arkansas reliever Yefri Del Rosario (32) in the ninth. Rosario gave up two runs without allowing a hit in an inning of work. He walked two and both runners crossed the plate.

Naturals Manager Tommy Shields was pleased with the work of Northwest Arkansas starter Andrew Hoffman, who allowed a run on four hits over six innings. But Corpus Christi took full advantage of walks by Naturals pitchers.

“I thought it was a wellpitched game, both sides,” Shields said. “I thought Hoffman was very good. I thought he had a good slider and mixed in some changeups and located his fastball. I thought he threw the ball very well. We walked four and three of them scored. When you’re not swinging the bats, they come back to bite you and it did.

“We had a chance in the ninth. Just couldn’t get it done. We just need to keep hitting the ball hard especially with runners in scoring position because we’ve struggled mightily in the last 12 games [in those situations].”

Corpus Christi started the top of the ninth with backtoback walks. The Hooks scored on a fielder’s choice and pushed the lead to 3-1 on J.C. Correa’s sacrifice fly. Northwest Arkansas got two on thanks to walks in the bottom of the ninth, but couldn’t push across a run.

The Naturals (19-29) have struggled offensively, scoring six runs on Wednesday that equaled the total for the last five games combined. They managed a run on just four hits a day later.

Hooks reliever Adrian Chaidez (1-2) picked up the win.