CORPUS CHRISTI - Via a smash to second, Yamal Encarnacion plated Tyler Whitaker with the bases loaded in the ninth inning Wednesday night, sending Corpus Christi to a wild 10-9 win over Amarillo before 3,748 fans at Whataburger Field.
The Hooks, playing as the World Famous Honey Butter Chicken Biscuits, trailed, 7-3, thru the first three innings but battled back by producing 10 runs on 10 walks and 11 hits, including matching their season-high of four home runs.
Whitaker and Chase Call both hit home runs for a second straight night. Whitaker, who swatted a lead-off long ball to left to start the second, is hitting .406(13x32) with three doubles, four home runs, and 10 RBIs over an eight-game hitting streak.
Call, who hit his first Double-A homer in his first Whataburger Field plate appearance last night, crushed an 0-1 slider over the pool in right field for a two-out, three-run jack, brining with the Hooks within a run at 9-8.
Call, who joined CC last week from High-A Asheville, ranks second in the Astros system with 17 home runs.
Trevor Austin, who has reached base eight times in the two games to start the series, evened the score with a lead-off blast to right in the eighth.
Austin now leads the Hooks with 12 home runs.
Alberto Hernandez is 8-for-18 (.444) in seven games to start his Hooks tenure, with his first Double-A homer coming on he first pitch he saw in the second inning.
The comeback was enabled by marvelous relief work from Corpus Christi as Alex Santos II, Nic Swanson, Hudson Leach, and Amilcar Chirinos teamed to strikeout nine against four hits, two walks, and one earned run in 6 1/3 innings.
Chirinos earned his third win by striking out the side in a perfect ninth.