Offense Serves as Word of the Day in 13-9 Curve Victory
CURVE, Pa. – Henry Davis and Mason Martin led the way for Altoona with four RBI each as the Curve slashed their way passed the Yard Goats on Wednesday afternoon in a 13-9 display of offense in front of 7,875 fans at Peoples Natural Gas Field. The Curve scored those
CURVE, Pa. – Henry Davis and Mason Martin led the way for Altoona with four RBI each as the Curve slashed their way passed the Yard Goats on Wednesday afternoon in a 13-9 display of offense in front of 7,875 fans at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
The Curve scored those 13 runs on 15 hits, while Hartford scored nine runs on 10 hits as offense prevailed in the Education Day contest. The four-RBI performances for Davis and Martin matched the season-high by a Curve batter. Altoona had six batters with two hits as all nine recorded hits in the contest.
Altoona jumped out to the early 1-0 lead in the first. Liover Peguero led off with a single and stole second base. Catcher Drew Romo threw the ball into center field, allowing Peguero to take third and score on a Davis groundout to make it a 1-0 game.
Hartford followed with a seven-run top of the third inning to take a commanding lead. Aaron Shortridge tossed two scoreless innings in the start before allowing eight consecutive batters to reach base in the third without recording an out. He gave up seven runs, with six of them earned on five hits with three walks and a strikeout across the 2.0+ innings on the start.
The Curve answered the big inning with 10 runs over the third, fourth, and fifth innings. Martin smacked an RBI-single in the third off Hartford starter Chris McMahon to make it a 7-2 game. In the fourth, Altoona opened the frame with three consecutive singles before Dylan Shockley lined a two-run single into right field. Peguero followed with a sacrifice fly off Mitch Kilkenny before Davis hit a two-run single later in the frame to tie the game 7-7, scoring five runs in the frame.
Peguero broke the tie in the fifth on an RBI-single with the bases loaded. Davis was then hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring another across before Martin brought two more runs across on a single to right field to make it an 11-7 Curve lead at the end of the fifth.
Hartford tacked on two runs off Juan Minaya in the seventh inning. Hartford loaded the bases on a single and two walks from Minaya before Cameron Junker entered the game for the Curve. Junker walked Colin Simpson to score a run and two batters later walked Bret Boswell before Tyler Samaniego entered and got Altoona out of the inning. Samaniego tossed 1.2 scoreless innings in the win.
The Curve responded with two runs in the bottom of the seventh on a Martin sacrifice fly and a Matt Gorski RBI-single off Michael Petersen. The Curve stole six bases in the game, a new season high. Nick Dombkowski tossed 3.0 innings of scoreless relief, while Travis MacGregor tossed a scoreless ninth inning.
The Curve continue their series with the Hartford Yard Goats, Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, on Thursday night with a 6:00 p.m. first pitch. RHP Kyle Nicolas takes the ball for the Curve and is opposed by RHP Nick Garcia for Hartford.
The Curve are proud to celebrate 25 years of memories in Curve, PA throughout the 2023 season. 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.
Fun one for our boys today!
— Altoona Curve (@AltoonaCurve) May 24, 2023
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