Mitchell and Cruz Homer in Curve's Fourth Straight Win

BINGHAMTON, NY – Cal Mitchell hit his first home run of the season in the first inning and Oneil Cruz slammed a two-run homer again on Wednesday night to lead the Curve to a 7-2 win over Binghamton. With the win, the Curve (4-3) push their record above the .500 mark for the first time this season while the Rumble Ponies (0-7) dropped their seventh in a row to start the season.

Cruz (1-3, HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB) began the offensive attack with a walk with one out in the first inning and scored on Mason Martin’s double to center. After Rodolfo Castro popped out for the second out of the inning, Mitchell hit a two-run homer to right to give the Curve a 3-0 lead.

Right-hander Travis MacGregor made his second start of the season and lasted 3.1 innings before hitting his pitch limit of 68 in the fourth. MacGregor recorded six strikeouts across the second and third innings before surrendering a solo homer to Wagner LaGrange in the fourth. MacGregor allowed four hits and no walks in his outing before giving way to Cam Alldred. Alldred, Shea Murray, and John O’Reilly combined for 5.2 innings of one-run relief allowing just three hits and three walks. Curve pitching combined for 11 strikeouts on Wednesday night, it was the sixth time in seven games that Altoona has struck out ten or more batters.

Altoona responded to the LaGrange homer in the fourth with a three-run fifth inning. Ji-Hwan Bae began the inning with a base hit and Cruz followed with his second two-run homer in the series. After a strikeout, Mason Martin rocked a triple to right-center and scored on Mitchell’s sacrifice fly to make it 6-1. Mitchell finished the night 1-for-3 with the home run and a season-high three runs batted in in the victory.

Martin extended his team-best on-base streak to seven games with a 2-for-4 night at the plate. He also drew a walk and scored two runs.

Arden Pabst added an RBI double in the sixth inning, scoring Daniel Amaral, to push the Curve lead to 7-1.

Binghamton had multiple chances for offense late in the game. The Rumble Ponies stranded the bases loaded in the seventh, left two in scoring position in the ninth and stranded another in scoring position in the ninth after Carlos Cortes knocked in Manny Rodriguez with a double in the ninth to make it 7-2.

Each position player starter for Altoona reached base in the game with six different players recording a hit.

The Curve and Rumble Ponies continue their six-game series on Wednesday night at NYSEG Stadium at 6:35 p.m. RHP Noe Toribio (0-1, 4.91) will make his second start of the season, Binghamton will send RHP Sam Tewes (0-1, 3.00) to the mound.

For tickets or more information about Curve Baseball, 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.