Bortnick Homers and Drives in Three

The SeaWolves jumped ahead in the second inning but could not cool off the Altoona bats on Tuesday night at People's Natural Gas Field as they dropped the middle game of a three game series 9-5.

The SeaWolves jumped ahead in the top of the second against Curve starter Cody Dickson. Alberto Gonzalez singled and moved to second on a passed ball. Dominic Ficociello tripled home Gonzalez for a 1-0 lead. With two outs, Tyler Bortnick singled home Ficociello for a 2-0 edge.

Altoona quickly tied the game in the home half of the second against Erie starter Brennan Smith when Edwin Espinal and Eric Wood each connected on a pair of solo home runs.

The Curve took the lead in the third. Anderson Feliz led off with a single and Jose Osuna homered making it 4-2. With one out, Espinal doubled and that would be the end of the day for the starter Smith. Santiago Garrido entered, making his first appearance for the SeaWolves. With two outs, Barrett Barnes doubled home Espinal for a 5-2 Curve lead.

Erie quickly tied the game in the top of the fourth. With two outs, Drew Longley singled and moved to second on a balk. Bortnick followed and crushed his team-leading fourth home run over the wall in left, making it a 5-4 game. Gustavo Nunez followed with a walk and stole second. Jeff McVaney followed with his second hit of the night, an RBI single, plating Nunez to tie the game.

Altoona struck right back in the bottom of the fourth against Garrido. Austin Meadows led off with a single and stole second. With one out, Osuna walked and Jin-De Jhang singled home Meadows for the 6-5 Curve edge. Espinal and Wood each singled home a pair as Altoona matched Erie's three-spot from the top half of the inning, taking an 8-5 lead into the fifth.

The Curve added one additional run in the fifth against Erie reliever Gabe Hemmer. Meadows walked and moved to second on a groundout. Meadows came in to score on an error when Osuna singled to left, making it 9-5 Altoona.

Erie could never bounce back as reliever Frank Duncan (2-0) tossed five scoreless frames in relief of Dickson. Duncan allowed three hits and struck out three.

Garrido (0-1) took the loss allowing three runs on four hits with two walks and three strikeouts in an inning of work.

Smith took the no-decision for Erie. He allowed five runs on six hits with a walk and two strikeouts in 2.1 innings of work. It was Smith's shortest outing of the season.

The SeaWolves look for the series win on Wednesday night at PNG Field at 6 p.m. RHP Lucas Harrell (1-0, 1.80 ERA) takes the mound for Erie against RHP David Whitehead (1-1, 3.21 ERA). The 'Wolves are looking for their third straight road series win.