Hooks hold off Naturals

SPRINGDALE — A ninth-inning, one-out single by Kort Peterson brought some life to the Naturals, who struggled to find any offense in Wednesday’s contest.

Travis Jones’ double-play the very next at-bat squelched any comeback hopes, and the Corpus Christi Hooks earned a convincing 4-1 win to open the teams’ three-game series in Arvest Ballpark.

The Naturals (10-16) held steady through the first three innings, allowing only a single hit until the fourth behind the strong arm of Conner Greene. He struck out three batters in the first three. Unfortunately for the home team, the redhot Granden Goetzman blasted a 420-foot homer over the left-field wall to break the tie. Joshua Rojas evaded a tag on his way to home plate shortly thereafter on a Chas McCormick groundout to increase Corpus Christi’s (13-13) lead.

A fifth-inning double by Ronnie Dawson drove in Chuckie Robinson and Anibal Sierra to extend the Hooks’ lead to four, which was their penultimate score. The bottom of the inning seemed to hold a little hope for the Naturals, as Jones’ single drove in Peterson to earn a run. Still, the Nats’ offense continued to struggle against relief pitcher Brandon Bielak, who earned his second-straight win over NWA.

Bielak went for 5 innings and struck out four batters, giving up only one run. On April 25, he pitched 32/3 innings and struck out two in the winning

effort. Meanwhile, Greene was awarded the loss, dropping his record to 2-2 on the season. In 4.1 innings, he gave up five hits, four runs and picked up four errors.

The Naturals were a disappointing 1-for-6 in scoring position. While the Hooks were 1-for-7 themselves, their fourthand fifth-inning charges were enough to overcome the inability to score throughout the contest. The visitors ended a two-game losing streak going back to April 28.

With the loss, the Naturals have lost their last four against Corpus Christi. They’ve lost by an average of 4.5 runs in that stretch.

Goetzman’s fourth-inning homer put him atop the Texas League in that statistic with seven on the season.