Meanwhile the Hooks used situational hitting and took advantage of an Express error to plate three runs in the 7th.

With the score knotted at 1-1, Mitch Einertson opened the seventh with a double to left-center.  Brian Esposito’s fly ball out to right moved Einertson to third.  Flores’ hard bouncer off the glove of third baseman Matt Kata went for a single and an RBI to give the Hooks the lead for good at 2-1.

Wladimir Sutil’s infield hit put two men on for DeLome, who smashed a single to right to plate Flores to make it 3-1.  On the play, right fielder Yordany Ramirez sailed a throw past catcher J.R. Towles, an error that allowed Sutil to score to give the Hooks a 4-1 advantage.

Manager Luis Pujols is liking what he has seen so far from his 2009 Hooks:

“It was a well-played game, and that’s what we’re looking for,” Pujols said. “I’ve always believed that if you play the game the right way, then you’ll win some games. I was telling (pitching coach Stan Boroski) that I’m very happy with my team this year. I think we’re going to do a lot of good things.”…”I like the way this group has (jelled) really quickly,” Pujols said. “It seems like everyone has known each other for a long time. The atmosphere is very good, and I like that.”

Tommy Manzella had three of the seven hits for the Express.

These two have a rematched scheduled in Corpus Christi on Tuesday.  Brad James will be the Hooks starter.

Aggressive Attitudes Towards Developement

“It was a shocker,” said outfielder Mitch Einertson, entering his fifth full pro season. “It was an eye-opener.”

That was the reaction to the cuts last week of Tip Fairchild, Billy Hart & Ole Sheldon.  Those cuts were also an indication of the new way of doing things in the Astros farm system.

“We’ve talked about how we’re going to create an express lane in the organization,” Wade said. “We talked about it when we made Al Pedrique the minor-league field coordinator. We’ve talked about how if a player shows, one, the ability, but more importantly, the makeup to be able to jump a level, then we’re going to give him the opportunity to do that.

“Part of the makeup aspect is being able to handle failure, because we’re going to move some guys and invariably, some of them are really going to struggle at a level. It’s the guys who can mentally handle going back a level and regrouping that will be the (ones who separate themselves).”

Corpus Christi enjoyed it’s first visit from a major league time since 1958 when the Giants played the Indians.  Whataburger Field sold more tickets than ever before (9,118); beating the previous mark (9,022) set when Roger Clemens was on his minor league whirlwind tour.   This despite the fact that tickets cost $26.50 more than they did in 1958.

The best part of the game for the Astros was Wandy Rodriguez’s dominate performance on the mound.  He faced one over the minimum for 6 innings.  He gave us a double to Wlad Sutil but fanned 11 Hooks batters along the way.  He left the game with a 2-0 cushion that wasn’t safe.

The Hook’s starter, Felipe Paulino wasn’t bad facing the Astros starters.  He went 6 innings giving up 2 runs on 4 hits and a walk.  He fanned 3.  The important thing was, he kept the Hooks in the game.

The bullpens for both teams struggled.  Jose Capellan was anything but impressive.  He let the Hooks get back in to the game and take the lead with 2 innings of shoddy relief work.  He gave up a 2 run home run to Jhon Florintino in the 7th and a solo shot to Andrew Locke in the 8th.

The Astros had added 3 runs of their own in the 8th and took a 5-4 lead into the bottom of the ninth.   Chris Salamida, who will likely pitch for Corpus Christi this year, was wearing an Astros’ uni last night.  He faced two batters in the 9th.  Mitch Einertson singled to start the inning and then much traveled catcher Brian Esposito took a 0-1 pitch over the right field wall to cap off a memorable evening for the Hooks players and fans.

“It was one of those things where we went out and decided to play hard, not worry about who’s on the field,” Esposito said. “We’re trying to get our team ready for opening day (on April 9). We put together a pretty good effort out there.”

Hooks manager Luis Pujols was pleased.

“I liked what I saw,” Hooks manager Luis Pujols said. “I was expecting a good game. Everyone was talking about it being sold out and standing room only. That was an exciting game for us to have the opportunity to play a major-league club.

“We hit some balls to the right place tonight. The guys played the ballpark the right way today.”

Cecil Cooper talks about Astros’ prospects:

“Well, you know what, I think they’re all dead wrong. I’ve heard all the talk,” Astros manager Cecil Cooper said. “We had a chance this spring to see a lot of our young kids play. Yes, we do have some young kids in the system, we do have somewhat of a void at a couple of the levels. But it’s just because we didn’t sign a lot of guys in ’06 and ’07.”

He adds some thoughts about Chris Johnson as well:

“Chris is a kid who I really think belongs at the major league level. He’s shown that he can handle it defensively,” Astros manager Cecil Cooper said. “He has struggled a little bit offensively, but you can see that there’s power in that swing. He has very quick wrists, he’s got a pretty good idea of the strike zone. He just needs to play a little bit.

“He had a pretty good year here last year, got a chance to go to Triple-A. He struggled a little bit at Triple-A. He just needs to play there a little more, and he’s got a chance to do that at the start of year. I expect Chris to be in the major leagues before the year is over.”

Berkman adds his two cents on the prospects:

“Well, I think there’s no doubt we’re thin or probably as thin as we’ve been in a long time with our minor-league system,” admitted Astros first baseman Lance Berkman, who served as Houston’s designated hitter Thursday night. “But that doesn’t mean that we don’t still have guys that are talented that are going to be knocking on the door and helping us out.

“Right now I think for so long our system has had so many good players in it. Inevitably every system is maybe going to go through a little bit of some hard times,” Berkman said. “But there are some guys out there that are going to be competitive at a high level.”

Pence talks up his buddies:

“We’ve got people who’ve come up through the system when I was there. You’ve got me and Sampson up here right now. A lot of young prospects like Towles,” Pence said. “We’ve made big trades to get Miguel Tejada here for some of the guys I came up with. We got to see Jason Castro in big-league camp this year and, I mean, that guy looks phenomenal. We’ve got some pitching that we saw early in camp. So there’s a lot to look forward to.”

The Hooks roster is set for the first two series.  Sergio Perez will be the opening day starter, followed by Polin Trinidad, and Casey Hudspeth.  Douglas Arguello and Brad James get their first starts in the second series.

“It’s a long spring and a long drive,” Pujols said. “Everybody took off about a day ago from (Kissimmee, Fla.). Some of the guys pretty much drove straight for 19 hours, and we came here and didn’t have a chance to hit on the field (before the game).

Brad James had what he called an “average day” after staying in the game following a batted ball to his right leg. He still managed to go 4 innings (71 pitches/51 strikes).

“He got out of trouble and that’s what you call pitching,” Pujols said. “I believe he threw the ball very well.”

For the Express, Jerad Gothreaux, struck out 7 in his 4 innings of work.

Jared came in and gave us four real strong, solid innings, and that’s what we’re looking for,” Round Rock manager Dave Clark said. “He’s a guy we’re going to really count on, and he went out there tonight and showed he deserved the baseball.

The highlight of the game came from Yordany Ramirez, who made a running catch right in front of the wall for the first out of the game. He also went 2 for 4 at the plate.

“It was incredible and you’re going to see a lot more of that,” said Express first baseman Mark Saccomanno. “He just goes out there and tracks down a lot of balls; he’s going to save a lot of runs out there.”

Sunday they traveled down to Corpus Christi and the Express unpacked their bats while the Hooks bats were still in transit. The Hooks brought in some ringers to pitch and it didn’t help. Reggie Abercrombie hit the first offering from Chris Sampson into the left field berm to set the tone for the night. Sampson ended up going 6 innings (57 pitches/ 43 strikes) and then doing extra work in the bullpen.

“It’s a lot of fun actually. I don’t want to say it was weird. I knew my goal coming in was just to come in here and get my work, get innings,” Sampson said. “I’d like to do good and finish my spring training on a positive note. But I was mainly focused in coming out here getting my innings in, getting my pitches built up and getting ready for Chicago on Friday.”

J.R. House homered off Brian Bogusevic in the 8th and Danny Klassen homered off German Melendez in the 9th.

Dave Clark who was promoted to Round Rock after a successful stint as a manager in Corpus Christi, had a good day at his old stomping grounds.

Being in the visitors’ clubhouse and dugout, two places he’d never been during his time here, was something different.

“It was strange, it really was,” Clark said. “I’m leaning on the left side when I’m usually on the right side. But once the game got started, it was baseball as usual.”

He also avoided taking the familiar right turn from the third-base coach’s box into the home dugout.

“I kept telling myself I wasn’t going to do it,” Clark said. “Plus, if I had, I wasn’t going to hear the end of it.”

The Lexington Legends released their roster on Sunday. The roster features 7 returning players, most notable among them are Leandro Cespedes, Nick Moresi and Max Sapp. They gained 15 players from TriCities, 1 from Greeneville and two from outside the system. The two newcomers to the Astros organization are pitcher Jay Pacella and infielder Roberto Mena.

Wood, 38, who assumes day-to-day operational leadership of the club, is one of four original Hooks employees.