Written the weeks of June 22-July 5, 2026

The Hooks head to Tulsa to take on the premier Texas League team of the first half season. The Drillers clinched their place in the playoffs by finishing first in the North Division. The Hooks did not as they shared joint custody of the South Division cellar with the San Antonio Missions.

I’m uncertain as to what will happen from a writing perspective during the next 10 days. I will be away, and I mean far away from home. Approximately 5 to 6 hours of flight time will be needed to return home and reunite with my computer.

Nonetheless, I expect to check scores during my time away. It’s not as helpful as seeing the games in real time. I will watch Corpus Christi at Tulsa streaming on Bally Sports LIVE in the evenings until I’m gone. I won’t catch any of the Northwest Arkansas games.

None of that is anywhere near as fun as being in the stadium. When the Hooks return from a 2-week road trip, I’ll be at Whataburger Field to cheer them on, hopefully sitting in my left field rocking chair.

I’ve seen the end of the first game and the entirety of the second game so far. I returned from an evening meeting to catch the last 3 innings of the third game on the radio in my car and then the TV at home. All I knew before I tuned into the radio station was what my friend Jim Cologna wrote in a text message.

“We finally made it to the park and we missed all the scoring?”

Scoring? Who scored? What is the score? Did we score? Are we winning? Losing?

Even after I tuned into the game, I remained uncertain about the score and who led. Michael Coffin, the voice of the Hooks, gave a rundown on the Hooks’ batters—Max Holy hit an inside-the-park home run. Jason Schiavone and Will Bush also hit home runs—but the score? Nada.

When I did hear the score, Hooks 10-Drillers 1 after seven, I jumbled the message in my mind. 10-7? 10-7 in the 7^th? Naw, it couldn’t be 10-1 Hooks.

It was, and that would be the final score.

All the scoring happened before the 5^th inning. Jackson Nezuh got through the 5^th with 9 strikeouts, 4 walks, and 1 run scored on 1 hit, a solo home run. In reading the box score info, something surprised me. Tuesday night in Tulsa was Nezuh’s first win of the season. He, like Trey Dombroski, had pitched well in most of his 11 starts but either left without the full 5 innings pitched to qualify for the win or the team didn’t offer him the run support necessary, like the 3-2 loss in San Antonio in a late-May downpour.

Wednesday night I watched the entire game from start to finish. The batting order stood out because of an absence on the one hand and a surprise on the other.

The absence?

Lucas Spence left for Triple-A Sugar Land. He led off for the Hooks during the last few series and remained effective during that time. He first led off in the fourth game in Midland, a 17-8 blowout, and finished in the leadoff spot for the Hooks in game 6 of the San Antonio series, a 5-3 win.

The surprise?

His replacement, Cameron Sisneros. Everything I know about him comes from what Tulsa’s announcer said during the game. He led off on Tuesday and Wednesday, not showing much in the first game, no hits in 5 at bats.

What he lacked on Tuesday he made up for on Wednesday—a leadoff walk in the 1^st, a leadoff single in the 2^nd, and a leadoff home run in the 5^th.

Thanks to the announcer, I know that Tulsa’s pitching staff leads the league in walks. Thanks to what I saw on Wednesday night, I believe him. In the first inning, the Hooks led 4-0 without recording a hit. The Driller pitcher gave up 5 walks before recording the first out. Tyler Walker ground out to first, but he had a productive at bat. Drew Brutcher scored the second run of the inning from 3^rd.

Before the final out, Will Bush garnered the sixth walk of the inning. He then stole 2^nd, which induced a throw by the catcher.  Tyler Whitaker stole home from 3^rd when the ball went to 2^nd.

During the Drillers’ at bat, the announcer started talking about a question he often gets asked. “Where should I go to watch a Tulsa away game?”

He then went on to talk about how much he enjoys going to Corpus Christi for those away games—the places to visit, the fishing, the beach vibe, and, of course, Whataburger Field.

As a very biased listener, I agreed with him wholeheartedly. I have a lot of suggestions as to where you might want to go if you’re here. Whataburger Field and the Texas State Aquarium are always at the top of my list.

Recently I’ve observed some promising trends.

First of all, we need effective relief pitching, and we’ve had that in the last 4 games, two at the back end of the first half of the season and two to start the second half.

Two ineffective moments were erased before they cost the Hooks a big inning by simply relieving the reliever. One reliever got a save against San Antonio only to be needing to be saved in Tulsa. Hudson Leach, the effective and ineffective reliever in those games, is a perfect example of being patient with players. He had the stuff in one game while not finding his spots in another. The fact that his fastball touches in the high 90s is reason enough to keep him on the roster.

I will admit, though, until he’s thrown a few strikes, I remain nervous when I see him trotting across the field from the bullpen to the mound. Images of Wild Thing, pre-glasses, and Bob Ueckers’ “Just a bit outside,” from the movie Major League come to mind.

Secondly, starting pitching has returned to championship form. Bryce Mayer, who pitched in Wednesday’s win, didn’t record any strikeouts until the 5^th inning. His outs came mostly from routine fly balls to the outfield. In fact, most of the outs that night came via the fly out no matter who was pitching.

The recent scores—a 3-2 loss, a 5-3 win, and two 10-1 wins—demonstrate how impressive our pitching has been. I’m anxious to see what a bigger sample size looks like as we move deeper into the 2026 season.

Thirdly, I’m seeing a power surge at the plate. The Hooks are getting a lot of extra-base hits which includes, at times, out homering our opponents. This power surge won’t win ball games without good pitching, but it sure can overcome bad pitching days from time to time.

Fourthly, the defensive play seems cleaner and smarter than earlier in the season. Spectacular still happens, but smart plays have erased the mistakes from those attempts at a spectacular play. The latter seems to provide extra bases and longer innings when smart would have ended things sooner.

What in the world is he talking about, smart and spectacular? Isn’t spectacular a good thing?

It is until it isn’t, and isn’t happens more than is.

A smart play is to make the easy throw to first for the sure out. An attempt at spectacular hurries a throw to 2^nd in hopes of getting a double play. I love a spectacular play when it happens, but I’ve seen too many crazy throws turn a 1-run lead into a 1-run deficit and a lot worse. I’m still smarting from a 0-6 lead after 5 innings becoming an 11-6 final.

Fifthly, the Hooks are aggressive on the base paths. They are 3^rd in the Texas League for stolen bases, but that doesn’t include aggressive base running to turn singles into doubles and doubles into triples. Plus, they trail 1^st-place Northwest Arkansas by only three.

Wednesday night, one particular play illustrates this full-steam-ahead attitude as well as any. Trevor Austin stood on 2^nd base when Max Holy hit a ground ball to 3^rd baseman Jake Gelof. Gelof threw to 1^st base, but hustling Max beat the throw for a single.

In the meantime, Ricky Rivera hurried Trevor around 3^rd base homeward, right arm windmilling, and he slid safely home ahead of the 1^st baseman’s throw by a sneeze.

In the 9^th inning, Tulsa brought in catcher Frank Rodriguez in a relief role. He faced 4 batters in relief. Jax Biggers doubled down the right field line. Garret Guillemette hit a sharp grounder to 3^rd, and Gelof threw him out at first. Cameron Sisneros hit a ground ball back to the mound, easy toss to first for the second out.

One thing I need to let you know. Rodriguez threw maybe 3 fastballs clocking in at 78-79 mph. That typically is the low end of a change-up. The rest of his pitches hovered between 25 and 35 mph. His final pitch, a called strike three, blazed in at 27 mph. Rodriguez put the soft touch to his slow lob.

In game 3, Ronel Blanco, an Astro pitcher on rehab, pitched 3.1 scoreless innings. Pitching would hold up well through 8 innings with Julio Rodriguez finishing out a scoreless 4^th inning and Cole Hertzler pitching 4 innings. Hertzler gave up a lone run, which made the score 2-1 Hooks going into the bottom of the 9^th.

I remember grousing about the one run because we no longer had a shutout. Ellen thought I was being greedy, but shutouts are hard to get, and we’ve lost several in the last inning or two. I had seen us pitch only one at that point in the season. On the other hand, I’ve seen us on the wrong end of at least a half dozen shutouts.

In the 9^th, Nic Swanson entered for a chance at a save. Nic has been solid this season, so I was confident he’d do fine. With Kole Myers’ first at bat, my confidence evaporated like water on Corpus Christi pavement. Kole hit a home run to tie the game. A single, walk, sacrifice bunt, and wild pitch resulted in a third run and a 3-2 Tulsa win. What a disappointing game before packing my bags.

From this point on, I did not see the final 3 games of the Tulsa series nor any of the Northwest Arkansas series. I flew to Bonaire for a 9-day diving adventure with our local dive shop, Ascuba Venture. My impressions from the games I missed are formed by my lovely assistant and darling wife (that is one and the same person) and my good friend Jim. I have her notes and their texts to guide me.

Every morning in Bonaire I’d rise early to read Ellen’s summary of the previous night’s game. It felt like picking up the local newspaper and turning to the sports page for news about the hometown baseball team. She also recorded the game the old-fashioned way, pencil to paper.

Her first note from Saturday’s game in Tulsa: The announcer just said the Hooks stole Tulsa blind in the first 2 games.

Ellen and I talked on the phone about Saturday’s game. I remember that conversation after seeing her note, Newell-Grand Slam HR, 3-run HR. He had 7 RBI in an 8-2 win. My wife had a very succinct suggestion. Don’t pitch to Newell!

On Sunday in game 6, Brett Gillis pitched 7 shutout innings. In the 5^th inning, he gave up his first of three hits. Ellen described his reaction when Frank Rodriguez singled up the middle. The ball zipped by Brett and fell safely in front of centerfielder Yamal Encarnacion. Brett’s face said it all: There it goes.

Julio Rodriguez pitched a clean 8th inning, and Nic Swanson finished with a 1-2-3 9^th for a Hooks’ 5-0 win, and a 3-3 series split in Tulsa.

The first game of the Northwest Arkansas series I checked the final score, Hooks 5-Naturals 3, before Ellen could tell me what happened. She was disappointed, so that was the last time I checked results while I was in Bonaire.

Ellen on WhatsApp June 30^th: So be nice and don’t look at any scores tomorrow. Let me tell you what happens. So far we’re very happy!

I waited until July 1^st to read her account. I’ll clean up her writing a bit because she does a stream of consciousness without much punctuation.

Okay! So in the very first inning the Hooks got four runs. Sisneros walked and then Schiavone struck out. Brutcher struck out and then Austin was up and there was a wild pitch and Sisneros got to second and then Austin walked and then Sullivan got a single so there was one run. Then our man Will Bush got a home run!! Which made it 4 to 0.

It stayed four to zero until the second inning when Vazquez on their team hit a home run and then it was one to four.

And it stayed that way until the 8^th inning when Sisneros got a single, Brutcher got a walk, and Sisneros stole second. Then Austin singled and Sisneros scored. Then Sullivan got a double and we got two runs. Then our guy Will got a single and we got another run and so then it was 8 to 1.

They got a run in the 8^th and another home run in the 9^th. Final score 3-8 HOOKS!

My response after reading Ellen’s account was: Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Ellen wrote her account of game 2 at 10:35 PM on July 1^st. Early the morning of July 2^nd, I read it. She wrote about how we did nothing in the 1^st while the Naturals scored 2 runs in their half of the 1^st.

We didn’t do anything at all through the first, second, third, or fourth innings, and at the bottom of the fourth inning they got a home run so now it’s three to nothing at the top of the fifth.

Nobody did anything in the fifth inning. Nobody did anything in the sixth inning. In the 7^th inning Sullivan struck out, Bush walked, then Whitaker got a ground ball out, and then Holy was up.

On a wild pitch Whitaker got to second, and then Holy walked, so now we had a guy on first and second. Then Biggers was up, and it was very frustrating because he struck out looking at three strikes, never swung the bat.

Now comes the 8^th inning. Sisneros doubled to right field. Schiavone got hit in the helmet so now we got a guy on first and second. Brutcher was up and there was a wild pitch. Our runners went to second and third. Then he got a single and Sisneros got home. So now it’s three to one.

Austin struck out. Then Sullivan was up and it was so amazing. The pitcher pitched the ball, Brutcher stole second, and Schiavone stole home!!! And then they walked Sullivan. So now it’s 3 to 2.

Then our guy Will Bush got up and hit a double with an RBI, so it’s 3 to 3. Will’s hit was really only a single but he took advantage of them throwing home and made it a double.

Then Whitaker flew out and Sullivan scored making it three to four. Then Holy struck out.

Then at the top of the 9^th Biggers walked. Sisneros struck out. Schiavone singled and Biggers went to 3^rd. Brutcher walked and bases [were] loaded! Austin bunted and was thrown out at 1^st and Biggers scored. We won, 5-3!!!

[The Naturals] didn’t do anything after the 4^th inning.

Ellen doesn’t write about the pitchers but, in checking the box score, Ronel Blanco, the Astro on rehab, pitched 4.1 innings and gave up the 3 runs. Alex Santos II finished the 5^th inning in relief then Bryce Mayer pitched the final 4 innings, giving up no runs on 1 hit, 1 walk, and 5 strikeouts, to record his second win of the season.

Game 3 saw five pitchers enter the game for the Hooks. For six innings, Cole Hertzler, Jose Guedez, and Jack Dashwood kept the Naturals’ batters at bay, giving up no runs during those innings.

Then came the 7^th inning and relief pitcher Julio Rodriguez. Rodriguez is either great, 6 up, 6 down, all strikeouts, or as wild and unpredictable as a hurricane. Great, he’s lights out. Wild, he’s a disaster. This night Hurricane Julio made landfall at Arvest Ballpark around 8:45 PM.

Ellen’s frustration could be seen in her account from that night and our conversation the next morning. Rodriguez walked a batter, threw 2 wild pitches, gave up 4 hits, had an error, and allowed 5 runs to score while recording 2 outs before Alejandro Torres entered, to everyone’s relief.

The wild pitches hit the ground then disappeared from catcher Will Bush’s sight. Ellen recreated those moments at least twice after I returned home. She ripped off the catcher’s mask, threw up her hands, and searched for the elusive ball mimicking Will’s desperation from that night.

She imagined Will having to see a therapist after the game. “Doc, I kept dreaming that I was looking for something and looking for something and I couldn’t find it. I just couldn’t find it!!!”

Ellen mentioned “a really pretty double play” in the 8^th inning. And then the ninth inning came and Whitaker walked and then Encarnacion walked. And then…

Holy struck out.

Biggers struck out.

Sisneros struck out.

Game over.

5-4 Naturals.

Ellen’s account for game 4 started with: Okay. I don’t want to get your hopes up at all. Even Jim left before the last inning. They lost!

Hooks lost 8-3.

The Hooks started game 5 with a Jason Schiavone single and a Trevor Austin double in the 1^st inning. Corpus Christi’s aggressive base running resulted in an out as Schiavone attempted to score from 1^st base on Trevor’s double.

Some shaky fielding and a poor flip to 1^st base by pitcher Trey Dombroski turned a soft roller single into a run-scoring hit with the batter Colton Becker ending up on 2^nd. A productive out and a sacrifice fly later, Becker scores from 3rd and the Naturals lead 2-0.

Dombroski would settle down over the next 5 innings and keep the Naturals from scoring any more runs. He recorded 6 strikeouts, 4 hits, 2 runs, and 1 error, all of the damage happening in the 1^st inning.

Tyler Whitaker led off the 4^th inning with a home run. Naturals 2-Hooks 1. Jax Biggers walked with one out, and Hemmanuel Rosario in his first Double A game hit a double. Prior to the hit, his broken bat and the baseball flew over 3^rd base, landing in foul territory. I guess he got a bit excited, but now it’s Naturals 2-Hooks 2.

Dombroski gets a 1-2-3 inning, and you know how I love those 1-2-3 innings. We’ll let Ellen take us the rest of the way.

Then at the top of the 5^th inning Austin grounded out and our guy Will hit a home run! So it’s 2 to 3!! And then they had three up three down. Then in the sixth inning we had three up and three down and then they got out. Then in the 7^th inning we got out and they had three groundouts. Then in the 8^th inning we had a line drive out and two ground outs and in the 8^th inning they had three groundouts. In the 9^th inning we had three strikeouts and then it’s the bottom of the ninth and…

We win!!!!

Game 6 happened on Sunday afternoon with neither Ellen nor I watching the game. She helped with a church dinner after worship services, and I was flying home after 9 days in Bonaire. The Hooks won handily 5-2, and took the series at Northwest Arkansas, 4 games to 2.

Returning home to Corpus Christi, they are a game out of 1^st place.  A good homestand and the Hooks could be in 1^st place going into the All-Star break.

“Turn the clock to zero, boss…We’re starting up a brand new day.” Sting, Cheb Mami

Corpus Christi Hooks 10-Tulsa Drillers 1                                    W

Corpus Christi Hooks 10-Tulsa Drillers 1                                    W

Corpus Christi Hooks 2-Tulsa Drillers 3                                      L

Corpus Christi Hooks 0-Tulsa Drillers 3                                      L

Corpus Christi Hooks 2-Tulsa Drillers 8                                      L

Corpus Christi Hooks 5-Tulsa Drillers 0                                      W

Corpus Christi Hooks 8-Northwest Arkansas Naturals 3             W

Corpus Christi Hooks 5-Northwest Arkansas Naturals 3             W

Corpus Christi Hooks 4-Northwest Arkansas Naturals 5             L

Corpus Christi Hooks 3-Northwest Arkansas Naturals 8             L

Corpus Christi Hooks 3-Northwest Arkansas Naturals 2             W

Corpus Christi Hooks 5-Northwest Arkansas Naturals 2             W

Texas League South 2^nd-half standings

Midland                           8-4

Corpus Christi                  7-5

San Antonio                     6-6

Frisco                              6-6

Amarillo                          5-7