Abreu’s Big Day Helps Hooks to Series Split

Box Score

AMARILLO – Wilyer Abreu hit two home runs, scored four times and drove in five Sunday night as Corpus Christi cruised to a 13-4 victory over the Sod Poodles at Hodgetown.

With back-to-back wins, the Hooks earned a split of the six-game set in Amarillo.

Abreu opened the game by crushing a 1-0 pitch from Ross Carver, making his Double-A debut, out to the parking lot behind the right-field berm.

The Hooks went deep twice in the third as Justin Dirden hit his 18th home run of the year, with Shay Whitcomb belting No. 11.

Dirden, who also homered Saturday, has seven hits in his last eight at-bats. The standout from St. Louis is batting .527 with 17 runs, eight doubles, a triple, five home runs and 16 RBIs in his last 14 games.

Dirden’s two-run single in the fourth steamed a five run frame as the Hooks built an 8-2 advantage. He is now tied for the Texas League with 68 RBIs.

Amarillo countered with a pair in the home half, chasing CC lefty Julio Robaina from the game.

Jonathan Sprinkle entered from the pen and picked up the win by retiring four of five batters faced.

The Hooks tacked on two more in the sixth, thanks in part to a two-out RBI single by Alex McKenna, who had cracked a sac fly in the fourth.

Abreu’s second home run came on the second pitch of the day by lefty Andrew Saalfrank. The three-run shot onto the berm in right put CC up by nine. It marked just the second multi-homer game by a Hooks player this year. Abreu is one of three Hooks to drive in five or more runs in a game in 2022, and the 23-year-old from Venezuela has accomplished the feat twice.

Misael Tamarez permitted just three base runners and struck out seven over four shutout innings to pick up the save.