Late Squirrels Rally Enough to Defeat Mountain City

CURVE, PA – Nick Gonzales hit his fourth home run of the season, but two runs over the last three innings were enough for Richmond as the Flying Squirrels beat Mountain City, 5-4, on Thursday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field.

Gonzales, who also hit a double in the first inning, launched a 1-1 pitch off Richmond starter Jake Dahlberg into the left field bleacher seats to tie the game 3-3, a two-run shot that scored Andres Alvarez. Brendt Citta hit a solo home run in the second inning, his second in Double-A this season.

Richmond (21-15) struck for three runs in the top of the third off Altoona (16-20) starter Carmen Mlodzinski. In his first appearance since returning from the injured list, Mlodzinski went 2.1 innings, allowing three runs (one earned) on three hits, four walks, and two strikeouts.

After a lead-off double from Simon Whiteman in the third inning, Mlodzinski walked two batters before striking out Sean Roby for the first out of the inning. Right-hander Noe Toribio then entered the contest and rolled what appeared to be a double play ball to second, but Frankie Tostado beat out the throw from Peguero to allow a runner to score.

In the next at-bat, Diego Rincones reached second on two errors by third baseman Jared Triolo, one fielding and one throwing. The Flying Squirrels scored two runs on the play. Toribio went 3.2, allowing just one hit and striking out four with no runs on his line.

Altoona scored one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. After a pair of singles from Triolo and Citta, Connor Scott placed a perfect bunt down the third base line off Dahlberg to score Triolo from third and reach on a single. Dahlberg went five innings, allowing four runs on seven hits and nine strikeouts. Taylor Rashi and R.J. Dabovich combined to allow just one hit over the final four innings to keep Altoona off the board.

Richmond scored a game-tying run off Austin Roberts in the seventh inning. After Roberts loaded the bases with no outs, Brett Auerbach grounded into a double play to score the run. Roberts allowed the one run in one inning with two walks. Richmond went ahead in the ninth on an RBI-single from Auerbach off Colin Selby, who took the loss allowing the lone run in one frame on one hit and two punchouts.

Zach Matson delivered a scoreless eighth inning for Altoona in the loss with a pair of strikeouts. Gonzales extended his hitting streak to seven games in the contest, while Altoona lost for the 10th time in 22 games when leading after five innings. Blake Sabol struck out in a pinch hit at-bat in the ninth.

Altoona continues their six-game series with the Richmond Flying Squirrels, Double-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, on Friday night at 6:00 p.m. RHP Kai-Wei Teng (1-3, 4.54 ERA) will be on the mound for Richmond, while Altoona will send RHP Mike Burrow (1-0, 2.35 ERA) to the mound.

For tickets or more information, visit AltoonaCurve.com, call 877.99.CURVE or stop by the PNG Field box office. Additionally, the Stockyard Team Store is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., during every home game and online 24/7/365.

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