Written the week of May 18-24, 2026

The Midland Rockhounds come to Corpus Christi for a 6-game series. They have been our Achilles heel in the past. Even when we stood atop the standings and they remained mired in last place, we could not get a home series win. I do acknowledge I may be overstating and misremembering the facts, but I’m a little grumpy after the way the Hooks ended the last series.

In game 1 Jackson Nezuh served up a 1^st-pitch home-run ball to Midland’s leadoff batter, Cole Conn. Leo De Vries followed up with a single to right field. Davis Diaz walked. Not a great start to the opening game of the series.

Between the single and the walk, I jotted a note: It is only the beginning, not the ending, whole story yet to be told. That note was not only for the start of the game, but a reminder of the season’s story. We’re in the early stages of a story that won’t be completed until the last out of the season, a story where I believe we raise the 2026 Texas League Championship trophy in Corpus Christi.

I’m the author of the story, but I’m not the protagonist nor am I the one who controls the outcome. The Hooks players get to play those roles. One of them may emerge as the real hero of the story, but we don’t know here in the beginning who that will be or how the story will end.

My role in all of this reminds me of a couple of famous writers, Stephen King and Clive Cussler, who have written loads of interesting novels. On occasion, they’ve written themselves into their stories. I believe Cussler has done that in most, if not all, of his books. King did it in his Dark Tower series.

The top half of the 1^st inning ended well despite the leadoff homer. The bottom half left the score at 1-0 Midland. Our half of the second quickly raised hopes of squaring the score.

Will Bush struck out. Trevor Austin walked. Max Holy walked. Pascanel Ferreras walked. A sacrifice fly would tie up the game.

I looked at the video board, saw Jeron Williams was coming to the plate, and read his batting average, .143. I also remembered his having key hits in the Amarillo series, and I wasn’t disappointed. He laced a double in the left center gap to get all three base runners home. Hooks took the lead, 3-1, after two.

The scoreboard in the middle of the 3^rd had an interesting read after Midland scored another run.

Midland: 2 runs, 5 hits, 0 errors

Corpus Christi: 3 runs, 1 hit, 1 error

The Hooks had done more with less thanks to solid pitching, sound defense, and timely hitting. Those 3 elements would remain throughout the game, and the Hooks would win 5-2. Keep those 3 elements active throughout the season and Corpus Christi will not only win a lot of games. They will be champions.

I have to note some promising trends. The Hooks didn’t get a lot of hits, but 3 of the 5 resulted in runs. Also, they cut the strikeouts down to 7. The lone Hooks home run came in the 8^th when newly promoted Jason Schiavone hit his 1^st Double A homerun. If he stays healthy, we should see a lot more of those. He currently leads all of Minor League Baseball with 18 home runs.

Julio Rodriguez stood out in his two innings of relief. He faced six batters and struck all six out.

Before game 1, an Astros’ outfielder on rehab assignment passed by me, and I tried to stop him. “Alan. Alan. Hey, Trammel. Trammel.”

He finally stopped. “My name’s not Alan.”

Confused I asked, “What is your name?”

“Taylor Trammel.”

He was kind enough to sign a baseball anyway despite the fact I’d called him by the Detroit Tiger Hall of Famer’s name, a player who was last on the field in 1996. Though spelled the same, their last names are pronounced differently.

I’m reminded of a baseball road trip I made with my pastor friends Greg Marsh and Chuck Hayes in 2005. Greg had a conference in Des Moines at the end of our road trip, so Chuck and I dropped him off and then went to watch the Iowa Cubs play the Round Rock Express.

Before the game, while the players were stretching, Chuck said, “There’s Ben Grieve.” In 1998, Grieve had been named American League Rookie of the Year.

I yelled, “Hey, Ben! Hey, Ben! We saw you in Milwaukee.”

I leaned back and asked Chuck, “Did we see him in Milwaukee?”

We had, and he graciously, like Taylor Trammel, autographed that day’s ticket.

Before game 2, someone said that Jason Schiavone would make a great catcher and perhaps surpass 2024 first-round pick Walker Janek among Houston’s top prospects. I said, “It’s early. We know he can hit, but who knows what kind of catcher he is.”

Early in the game, I knew a lot more. Schiavone gunned down 3 runners attempting to steal 2^nd and grabbed a dart from shortstop Max Holy to tag Euribiel Angeles out at home. Preventing that run would prove significant. Schiavone had the best defensive game as a catcher that I’ve seen at any level and established that truth in the first two innings.

By the way, Max Holy autographed my ticket before the game, then had quite the performance on both sides of the ledger. That dart to Schiavone matched Trevor Austin’s “magnificence” in the previous series, and, in the 6^th, he hit his first Double A home run.

By the bottom of the 2^nd, the Hooks had done something rare of late. They’d scored early. With 2 outs, Tyler Whitaker singled, and Pascanel Ferreras doubled down the 3^rd -base line. Whitaker was off with a fury that only increased as Ricky Rivera, Hooks’ manager and 3^rd-base coach, windmilled him home in a hurry.

The Hooks would have errors by an outfielder, an infielder, and a pitcher. Only the first error resulted in a run in the 5^th inning. The pitcher’s error happened when he sent a soft toss 10 feet in the direction of the 1^st baseman. It would have been a perfect throw if the 1^st baseman were 8 feet taller.

The 6^th inning started with the error that turned an out into a double. A walk put runners at 1^st and 2^nd with nobody out. Two strikeouts and a ground out later, the game remained knotted at 1-1. Then Max Holy lead off with a homer. The game would end with a score of Hooks 2-RockHounds 1.

Several strange things happened during the game. First, in the 2^nd inning, Hooks’ starting pitcher Mayer plunked Davis Diaz in the head, and, from the 2^nd row, 3^rd base side, the injury did not look good. A Midland coach escorted him off the field.

In the 3^rd, Mayer hit Shane McGuire, the RockHound catcher, and, from the 2^nd row, 3^rd base side, the scowl looked quite menacing. How Mayer escaped unscathed after offering 5 free passes, 3 walks, and 2 hit by pitch, was a pleasant surprise because, like the Diaz HBP, it did not look good.

Second, the home plate umpire had more conversations with managers than I can ever recall. Outside of a “was he or wasn’t he hit by a pitch?” moment, I have no idea what the topic of any of those exchanges was. Nothing got heated enough for a coach to get tossed. By the way, according to the batter, he was hit. According to the umpires, after all three pondered the question on the infield, he was not. On the next pitch, Clark Elliott walked anyway.

Game 3 was not a good day at the office for the Corpus Christi Hooks. They had one shining moment in the whole game, and it was Max Holy’s leadoff home run, the 2^nd in as many days, in the bottom of the first inning. Final score: Midland 13-Corpus Christi 1. Ouch!

Here’s how bad it was. I pitted our errors against our hits, and errors won 4-3. Double ouch!

Let us simply turn the page and show up for work the next day.

I often text my wife during the games, and texting her provided a way to take notes during Game 4.

Me: A decent game going into the 3^rd. Sullivan homered to tie it up 1-1.

Me: Double by Yamal. Rivera windmills. Whitaker flies home to score.

Her: Yay!!!

Her: He [Yamal] stole 3^rd!

Her: Crap [after the final out]

Me: 2-1 Hooks after 4.

Me: Very similar to the other game we won 2-1. Good pitching, timely hit, decent defense.

Me: 3-0, have to throw a strike or bases loaded. 3-run home run to give Midland the lead. Our hit goes to warning track, and one big, Aw! [the collective response of the home crowd for the 1^st but not last time.] 4-2 after 5.

Her: Come on, Hooks!!!

Me: Another deep hit with 2 on, Aw!

Her: Good grief.

Me: 9 outs to make up ground. Hopefully it’ll only take 6.

We’d get two hits in the last three innings, stranding Jeron Williams at 2^nd in the 7^th and hitting into a double play to wipe out Yamal Encarnacion’s single in the 9^th.

Often the Hooks have hit well in the waning innings, but that didn’t happen on Friday night. One element absent was Will Bush’s bat. He went on the 7-day injured list before the game. Will brings joy and energy to the field and adds late-inning hits to the mix. He will be missed over the next week or more.

The last two nights, games 5 and 6, raised my hopes for the season and offered me a glimpse of what a great team looks like. It’s not what I’d necessarily expected—a lot of hits, soaring batting averages, pitching excellence, error-free defense, more pitchers’ strikeouts leading to more wins, an abundance of runs—but the team did play well, and certain players rose to the occasion. One player had only one chance to make an impact, and he took advantage of his one opportunity. Another continued to write happy endings with his bat.

In game 5, both teams had runners on in the 1^st and 2nd innings, but neither team managed to get anyone home. In the top half of the 3^rd, the Hooks got an unusual double play after Midland’s leadoff single. The A’s #1 prospect, Leo De Vries, hit a sharp grounder to 1^st baseman Garret Guillemette who stepped on 1^st then threw to shortstop Max Holy to catch Shane McGuire in a rundown.

That particular double play doesn’t happen often, and I don’t believe I’ve seen it during this season until Saturday night.

In our half of the 3^rd, we had two walks, two singles, and two runs scored. Hooks led 2-0. In my notes, I wrote: GG [Garret Guillemette] walk, Holy walk (which sounds both spiritual and cool…).

Lately, my notes have been texts. On Saturday, Ellen received my texts.

After we had scored the 2 runs, I ended my text to Ellen: I like these long texts.

This text exchange followed.

Me: Walk, K, FO to left, whirling 4-3 ground out. Nice & short.

Her: That’s their time up?

Her: I guess duh, huh?

Me: Their being Midland.

Me: “Nice” gives it away.

Her: Yup

In the 4^th, the Hooks extended their lead when Yamal Encarnacion singled, stole 2^nd, advanced to 3^rd on a Whitaker fly ball to deep right field, and scored on a deeper fly ball to center by Garret Guillemette. All 3 at bats proved productive, and I love those productive at bats by the Hooks.

In the 5^th, our starting pitcher Brett Gillis had a ground out, strikeout, line out 1-2-3 inning. He would pitch 6 strong innings, end his night with another 1-2-3 inning, and get the win.

Astro Taylor Trammel would get the 1^st of his two home runs in the 5^th. Two innings later, he’d get his 2^nd, and I would text Ellen, Taylor Trammel may be gone after tonight. He hit his 2^nd homer of the night. He would still be here on Sunday.

Remember that rare double play in the 3^rd? It happened again in the 8^th when Shane McGuire hit a sharp grounder to Garret Guillemette who stepped on 1^st and fired a strike to Max Holy to catch Justin Reimer in a rundown.

Brett Gillis, Alex Santos II, and Julio Rodriguez combined to pitch a 3-hit shutout, the first one of the season for our pitching staff. My last text that night said, Wild to be on the winning side of a shutout.

Sunday’s game turned out to be a pitcher’s duel involving a lot of pitchers. Midland had 4, and Corpus Christi had 5 enter the game. Two of ours included Astros’ starting pitcher Hunter Brown and closer Josh Hader. Both teams totaled 4 hits each, with Midland striking out 14 times to Corpus Christi’s 10.

In the 3^rd inning, the box score summary described Taylor Trammel’s at-bat like this: Taylor Trammel flies out sharply to right fielder Carlos Pacheco.

@cchooks described the play this way on the Hooks’ website. “We aren’t going to lie…that was pretty cool.”

The response of the Midland bullpen included shouts and leaps of joy. The home crowd cheered also, despite it happening against the Hooks. I believe I saw Taylor Trammel shaking his head in disbelief and smiling. The play was #3 on ESPN’s Top 10 on Sunday night.

What happened?

Pacheco leaped high and snared the sharp drive to right field just before he and the ball cleared the fence and tumbled into the bullpen. He committed baseball larceny and robbed Trammel of what would have been his 3^rd home run in two days.

I started texting Jim Cologna, our 1st base coach’s dad, in the 6^th inning. It’s 0-0 with 2 outs in the bottom of the 6^th.

A walk and an error in the top of the 7^th resulted in a Midland run. Ellen believed that whoever scored first would win. I hoped she was wrong, but I certainly had similar thoughts. Pitching for both teams seemed to dominate the whole night, so a single run seemed sufficient for a win. After 7 complete innings, Midland 1-Corpus Christi 0. We had six outs left to tie or win the game.

In the 8^th, Jason Schiavone threw out the runner at 2^nd. I note this because, as mentioned earlier, he threw 3 guys out in the 1^st two innings of his Double A catching debut.

In the 9^th inning, I wrote these texts to Jim:

Me: Going into the bottom of the 9^th, still 1-0.

Me: Wow! Jeron Williams hit a home run. You will want to see the highlight.

Right fielder Carlos Pacheco ended up in the Midland bullpen again, and I held my breath until I saw the ball bounce up off the ground.

That was Jeron’s one and only at bat on Sunday night, and he got enough of the ball to clear the fence, tie up the game, and send us into the 10^th.

In extra innings, the last out from the 9^th starts on 2^nd. Midland’s runner advanced to 3^rd on a sacrifice bunt by recently promoted Justin Reimer. Railin Perez would walk Cameron Leary, and Leary would steal 2^nd. Now runners were at 2^nd and 3^rd with one out. One deep fly ball and the RockHounds would take the lead. That sacrifice fly never happened, and a strikeout and ground out later, the game remained knotted at 1-1.

Pascanel Ferreras started as the runner at 2^nd for the Hooks. After a wild pitch, he stood on 3^rd with Yamal Encarnacion batting. When Yamal laced a hit down the 1^st base line, 5000+ fans exploded out of their seats and roared as Pascanel Ferreras trotted home. Final score Hooks 2-RockHounds 1.

Looking over team stats, I discovered the team batting average once again dropped another .04 points to remain #9 at .222. We return to the early weeks of the season where our hitting dwelt in or near the basement while our pitching lived in the penthouse. Pitching dominated in the games we won this week, and hitting showed up in a timely fashion in those wins. Timely proves the key to winning whether it’s a timely double play or a timely hit down the line.

The Hooks are an aggressive base-stealing team, which matches the nature of our manager, Ricky Rivera. The team ranks #2 in stolen bases, and a great week of stealing in San Antonio might get us to #1.

Our pitching rose to #2 in the strikeout column and raised its strikeouts to balls ratio back to a respectable 2.09. Hooks are #3 in team ERA.

Let’s see if the Hooks can crack the top 3 in the standings this week. That would be a great sign of improvement, more so than batting averages and ERAs.

Midland RockHounds 2-Corpus Christi Hooks 5                         W

Midland RockHounds 1-Corpus Christi Hooks 2                         W

Midland RockHounds 13-Corpus Christi Hooks 1                       L

Midland RockHounds 5-Corpus Christi Hooks 2                         L

Midland RockHounds 0-Corpus Christi Hooks 6                         W

Midland RockHounds 1-Corpus Christi Hooks 2                         W

Texas League South standings

Midland                           24-21

Amarillo                          23-21

Frisco                              23-21

Corpus Christi                  21-24

San Antonio                     17-28