Scott Sacrifices a Pony in Walk-Off Win
CURVE, Pa. – With the game tied in the bottom of the 10th inning, Connor Scott hit a high fly ball to right fielder Tanner Murphy that served as a sacrifice fly to walk-off the game and secure the 4-3 victory for the Altoona Curve over the Binghamton Rumble Ponies
CURVE, Pa. – With the game tied in the bottom of the 10th inning, Connor Scott hit a high fly ball to right fielder Tanner Murphy that served as a sacrifice fly to walk-off the game and secure the 4-3 victory for the Altoona Curve over the Binghamton Rumble Ponies on Wednesday night at People Natural Gas Field.
Altoona took its first lead in the bottom fourth inning thanks to the bat of Matt Gorski, who crushed a ball off Binghamton starter Jose Chacin over the center-field wall to give the Curve a 1-0 lead. It was the sixth home run of the season for Gorski.
Altoona’s powerful lineup would not stop there. Mason Martin would walk up to the plate in the bottom half of the 6th inning following a leadoff walk by Henry Davis. Martin would slash the ball just over the far-right field wall to give the Curve some insurance runs and put them up 3-0. It was Martin’s ninth home run of the season.
The 3-0 lead would stand until the ninth inning. LHP Tyler Samaniego allowed a pair of lead-off singles to open his first inning of relief before surrendering a game-tying, three-run home run by Jose Peroza. Samaniego would allow the three runs on four hits in a single inning of relief.
The Curve stranded the winning run on third base in the bottom of the ninth inning to send the game into extra-innings. Oliver Garcia would enter in the 10th and strike out two batters for Altoona, leaving one runner stranded in a scoreless frame.
The bottom of the tenth brought some excitement along with it. With Gorski serving as the placed runner at second, Jacob Gonzalez attempted to lay down a sacrifice bunt. His bunt stopped in front of the plate, allowing catcher Matt O’Neill to catch Gorski in a run-down between second and third. Gonzalez would run all the way to second, where both base runners momentarily stood on the bag before Gonzalez sacrificed himself by stepping off the bag to leave Gorski as the baserunner with one out.
Gorski would utilize his good speed by stealing third base on the first pitch to Scott, setting up the eventual sacrifice fly to win the game for the Curve. It was the third walk-off win for Altoona this season.
Altoona starter Kyle Nicolas dazzled for the Curve in the outing. He tossed 6.0 scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and one walk to go with eight strikeouts. It matched the longest outing of the season for Nicolas, who has struck out at least five batters in 8-of-10 starts this season. His 56 strikeouts rank third in the Eastern League through the month of May.
Juan Minaya and Noe Toribio each tossed a scoreless inning of relief as Curve pitchers combined to strike out 14 batters. Lolo Sanchez, Martin, and Gonzalez all finished the game with two hits as Altoona strung together 10 hits in the win.
Altoona won their first game of the series and are now 23-22, while the Binghamton Rumble Ponies fell to an even 23-23. Altoona continues its two-week homestand with Binghamton, Double-A affiliate of the New York Mets, on Thursday evening at 6:00 p.m. Altoona will send RHP Matt Eckelman to the mound to face Binghamton’s RHP Luis Moreno.
The Curve is 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.
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— Altoona Curve (@AltoonaCurve) June 1, 2023