Ryan Hook did his alma mater proud on Benton High School Night at Phil Welch Stadium.

The former Cardinals player drove in three runs in a 3-for-4 performance and reliever Ryan Carbah got a game-saving strikeout in the ninth inning as the St. Joseph Mustangs defeated the Mac-N-Seitz Athletics 8-7 Wednesday night.

Hook admitted that he had been uncomfortable and struggling at the plate, but he said he worked hard in the batting cage at Hard Ball Academy earlier Wednesday.

“I worked hard and played with some things, and once I got comfortable at Hard Ball, I brought it out here,” Hook said. “I just had an approach to hit fastball and lay off the offspeed and try to go the other way.”

Hook did so with plenty of success, driving a two-run double to right field in the first and a run-scoring triple to the nearly the same spot in the third. He added a single in the seventh and stole second but was stranded as the Mustangs were unable to plate a much-needed insurance run.

That put pressure on reliever Carbah, who came on in the ninth and gave up a pair of singles and a sacrifice bunt and a walk.

With runners at the corners and two out, Carbah was down in the count 2-0 and struggling with what seemed all night like an inconsistent strike zone.

“I don’t know where I was supposed to throw the ball. It looked like the zone got a little bit smaller, but you’ve just got to fight through it,” Carbah said.

After missing on two pitches on the outside corner, he finally got a strike on the inside corner.

“I got that call, then went back out to the outside again,” Carbah said.

Carbah’s 2-2 offering was high and outside, but Jordan Owen chased it, helping the Mustangs (7-2, 4-2 MINK) keep their perfect record at Phil Welch Stadium intact.

Mustangs starter and winning pitcher Blake Thomas struck out 10 and walked only one over seven innings, leaving with an 8-6 lead after giving up a home run to Nick Dibiasse to lead off the eighth.

Thomas struck out the side in order in the first and the sixth.

His only rough stretches came in the third and the fifth. He gave up a pair of singles and Trey Karlen’s two-run double in the third. Karlen finished 3-for-4, adding a two-run triple in the fifth and an infield single in the ninth.

It was exciting but not pretty.

“That wasn’t very good,” Mustangs manager Matt Johnson said. “Very uncharacteristic of our guys. It might have been the extra days off we had, but they’re a lot better than what they showed tonight.”

Among the lowlights were a fielding error and some mental mistakes. The Mustangs also ran themselves out of a big inning in the second. Johnny Coy and Houston Slemp both singled, and each was erased on a baserunning blunder — Coy trying to advance to third and Slemp trying to stretch a single into a double.