RHP Trey Nielsen shut out the Corpus Christi Hooks through his five innings, helping pace the Springfield Cardinals to the 6-3 win before the sellout crowd of 6,773 fans at Hammons Field on Tuesday afternoon.
The Cardinals and the Hooks both received scoreless performances by their starting pitchers. Nielsen (W, 1-2) stifled the Hooks (8-4) through his five scoreless innings, scattering just five hits with four walks while striking out a season-high five batters.
Hooks RHP Keegan Yuhl (L, 0-1) matched Nielsen through his first four scoreless innings, but the Cardinals (7-5) broke through with a huge six-run rally in the bottom of the fifth. With one down, 3B Paul DeJong was hit by a pitch from Yuhl to spark the offense. C Jesse Jenner followed with a sharp single, before LF C.J. McElroy, Jr. loaded the bases with a walk. Yuhl retired CF Harrison Bader with a strikeout, but SS Breyvic Valera came through with a bases-clearing, three-run double to right field, catapulting the Cardinals ahead, 3-0. Valera got to third on an errant throw in from the outfield, before 2B Bruce Caldwell laid down a perfectly-placed RBI bunt single to squeeze Valera home. Trailing by four runs, the Hooks brought in RHP Joe Musgrove to face 1B Luke Voit. However, Voit crushed Musgrove's first pitch well beyond the left field fence for a mammoth two-run home run, his first in Double-A, padding the lead to 6-0.
RHP Joey Donofrio entered for the Cardinals and tossed a quick sixth, but the Hooks cut the deficit in half in the seventh. Following consecutive walks from C Alfredo Gonzalez and CF Teoscar Hernandez to start the inning, RHP John Brebbia took over on the mound. RF Derek Fisher, though, worked a free pass to load the bases with no outs, before 2B Jack Mayfield was hit by a pitch to force in the first run. 1B Conrad Gregor followed with an RBI sacrifice fly, and then 3B J.D. Davis ripped an RBI single, chipping the Hooks deficit to three runs. Brebbia, however, got out of the jam with a fielder's choice and a fly out to avoid further damage, ending the inning with the Cardinals up, 6-3.
RHP Ronnie Shaban (S, 3) took over on the mound to start the top of the eighth inning and slammed the door with a pair of scoreless stanzas for the two-inning save, closing the 6-3 win for Springfield.
