Tony Kemp Records 5 Hits in Corpus Christi Hooks Win

With the Texas League season winding down to a close, the Corpus Christi Hooks offense saw the ball and hit the ball. Tony Kemp led the charge with a 5 for 5 effort and two stolen bases in a 7-3 win over the San Antonio Missions Sunday night..

The Hooks entered the second game of the series with a 7-game losing streak in San Antonio.

One of baseball’s oddities occurred in the third inning. Telvin Nash took a base on balls on just three pitches due to an umpires’ error.

Two different ends of the spectrum is one way of describing the pitching matchup. A young, left-handed pitcher in Josh Hader matched up against Josh Geer. Hader is a 20-year-old guy who finds himself rated as the No. 10 prospect in the Houston Astros organization. Meanwhile, Geer is a 31-year old with some major league service for the Padres during the 2008-2009 seasons.  This battle of “Joshes” was dictated largely by the offense of both clubs for the first five innings of play.

Hader allowed the first run of the game on an RBI single by Missions’ center fielder Hunter Renfroe. Josh never really found a groove in this start. His best look came in the 4th inning. Cody Overbeck started the inning with a solo home run to right field. Then Hader struck out the next three batters in the inning. Overall he survived 5 innings with 4 strikeouts, 3 walks, and 3 earned runs.

David Rollins retired the first seven batters he faced in relief. Renfroe then stung the ball to deep center field for a ground-rule double. Rollins finished with 2 & 2/3 innings of scoreless work including two strikeouts. Ruben Alaniz, with a runner at 3rd and 2 outs, struck out Overbeck to end the Missions’ half of the 8th inning.

Defensively the Hooks looked very good. Teoscar Hernandez and Brandon Meredith displayed their range in the outfield while Kemp made a dazzling play to his right later in the game.

Hernandez and Rene Garcia, along with Kemp, recorded multi-hit games as well.

Missions third baseman Cory Spangenberg entered the game with an 18-game hitting streak that was snapped with an 0 for 5 performance.

Kemp’s 5-hit game was the first by a Hooks player this season.

The Hooks won the game 7-3 to improve to 8 games under .500 for the year. Monday’s series finale will feature Hooks RHP Chris Devenski (4-3, 3.93) against Missions RHP Leonel Campos (2-5, 4.61).