White Jr. Homers in 7-1 Defeat
CURVE, Pa. – Akron jumped out to an early 6-0 lead and cruised to a 7-1 win over the Curve on Friday night in front of 5,015 fans at Peoples Natural Gas Field. Akron’s Ryan Cesarini hit a leadoff home run on the game’s first pitch and added a three-run
CURVE, Pa. – Akron jumped out to an early 6-0 lead and cruised to a 7-1 win over the Curve on Friday night in front of 5,015 fans at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
Akron’s Ryan Cesarini hit a leadoff home run on the game’s first pitch and added a three-run homer in the second to push the ‘Ducks to a significant early lead. Cesarini has homered six times in three games played this week. The RubberDucks tagged Curve starter Connor Oliver for six runs in 2.2 innings, earning five hits and five walks against the lefty starter.
Lonnie White Jr. mashed his 17th home run with the Curve to put Altoona on the board in the fourth. White Jr. is hitting .400 in his last 22 games with a 1.270 OPS since the All-Star break. Matt King notched the lone other hit for the Curve with a leadoff single in the sixth. Both he and White Jr. reached twice in the defeat.
Altoona’s bullpen turned in an excellent performance after Oliver and allowed just one run over 6.2 innings. Josh Loeschorn allowed just one baserunner in 2.1 innings of relief and picked up three strikeouts. Mike Walsh tossed a pair of scoreless frames with one strikeout and Jaycob Deese was touched for an earned run for the first time in eight outings (11.2 IP). Deese struck out four and has registered multiple strikeouts in four straight relief outings.
Oneil Cruz continued his rehab assignment by making his third start of the week. He went 0-for-4 with a strikeout on Friday night, going 2-for-12 in three games on his rehab assignment.
Akron’s Caden Favors turned in a career-best outing on the mound, earning ten strikeouts in seven innings of one-run ball. Favors allowed just three total baserunners and set down nine straight hitters to start the day.
Altoona continues their series against the Akron RubberDucks on Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. Altoona will send RHP Dominic Pipkin to the hill while the RubberDucks will start RHP Sean Matson.
For tickets and more information on the Altoona Curve, 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 4 p.m., during every home game and online 24/7/365.