Hooks Finish 2023 with Third Straight Series Win

Julio Robaina won the Texas League ERA crown by striking out 9 over 6.0 shutout innings in the 2023 season finale Sunday night at Tulsa. (Ben Zaragosa)

September 17, 2023

Box Score TULSA, OK - Corpus Christi cruised to a 7-2 win over Tulsa before 5,204 fans in the 2023 Texas League finale Sunday night at ONEOK Field. By taking four of six from the Drillers, the Hooks won their final three series of the season for an overall record

Box Score

TULSA, OK - Corpus Christi cruised to a 7-2 win over Tulsa before 5,204 fans in the 2023 Texas League finale Sunday night at ONEOK Field.

By taking four of six from the Drillers, the Hooks won their final three series of the season for an overall record of 70-68. It marks Corpus Christi's first winning campaign since 2018.

The Hooks, who went 11-4 in September, won eight of 12 games against the Double-A Dodgers in 2023.

Julio Robaina picked up his 10th win by hurling six shutout innings Sunday. Robaina struck out nine and permitted only two singles, including a bunt base hit, while retiring 18 of 20 batters faced.

In 26 assignments, the 22-year-old southpaw from Havana posted the best ERA in the Texas League at 3.18.

Corpus Christi sent eight men to bat in a five-run second. Jordan Brewer began the frame with a base hit to left. One out later, Luis Aviles Jr. cracked an RBI double. Back-to-back singles by C.J. Stubbs and Bryan Arias put the Hooks up, 2-0.

Garrett Wolforth was next and, from the nine-hole, belted a three-run home run the opposite way to right field. Wolforth, 1-for-3 with two runs scored and a walk on Sunday, batted .296 with 12 extra-base hits and 16 RBIs in his final 32 games.

Zach Daniels, who plated Wolforth in the seventh, recorded hits in his last two at-bats, including a ninth-inning double.

Brewer, turning in a .325 September batting average, also doubled in the ninth. It came after a Zach Dezenzo base hit and before J.C. Correa's sac fly.

Thanks to a 2-for-5 showing, Will Wagner finishes his Texas League season with a 16-game hitting streak, as well as a 29-game on base streak, both 2nd longest in their category in the circuit this year.

Brayan De Paula struck out two in a 1-2-3 seventh for his second scoreless Double-A performance in as many outings.

Ray Gaither was perfect in the eighth.

Despite allowing back-to-back homers in the ninth, Logan VanWey logged a 3.00 ERA in 23 Double-A outings while finishing 10 games and converting both save chances for the Hooks.