Smith-Njigba, Citta Drive in Six in Sixth Straight Win

BINGHAMTON, NY – The Altoona Curve picked up their sixth straight win on Friday night, hanging on through a tense bottom of the ninth inning, to defeat the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, 9-7, at NYSEG Stadium. The Ponies dropped their ninth in a row to start the season.

Binghamton plated four runs in the first inning off RHP Max Kranick who settled down to retire 15-of-17 batters after a Yoel Romero double to earn the victory. Kranick, pitching in front of more than a dozen family and friends who made the one-hour drive from his hometown of Scranton, PA, struck out four over 5.0 innings and allowed five hits and one walk. He threw 79 pitches, 55 strikes.

The Curve wasted no time getting back into the game when LF Canaan Smith-Njigba blasted a two-run home run over the wall in right-center to make it 4-2 in the second. In the third inning, Kranick started a four-run rally with his first professional hit in the third inning. Jonah Davis and Ji-Hwan Bae followed with singles of their own to load the bases and with one out, Brendt Citta (3-for-5, double, two RBI) singled home a pair to tie the game. Smith-Njigba then reached on an error that scored two runs to take a 6-4 lead for Altoona.

Smith-Njigba added a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning and a double in the eighth inning to cap off a 2-for-4 day at the plate in which he drove in a season-high four runs and scored two runs.

Binghamton made it a 7-6 game with two runs in the seventh, but Altoona rallied back with two runs in the eighth. Bligh Madris singled in Smith-Njigba and scored on a fielder’s choice by pitcher Will Gardner; the second run batted in by a Curve pitcher this season.

Leading 9-6 entering the ninth, Gardner walked a pair with two out and surrendered an RBI single to Nick Meyer forcing the Curve to go to the bullpen. Shea Murray entered and induced a groundball into the hole at short which Oneil Cruz knocked down into shallow left field. Binghamton LF Carlos Cortes turned for home as the ball skipped away from Cruz, but the shortstop recovered and threw home to get the final out of the game at home plate and secure the win, 9-7.

Cruz extended his hitting streak to five games with a double in the top of the ninth to finish the day 1-for-5 at the plate. Bae went 2-for-5 with two runs scored.

The Curve and Rumble Ponies continue their six-game series on Saturday night at NYSEG Stadium at 6:35 p.m. RHP Osvaldo Bido (0-0, 11.57) will make his second start of the season, Binghamton’s starter is to be announced.

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.