Curve drop road trip finale to Thunder in extras

TRENTON, N.J. - Pirates top pitching prospect Mitch Keller allowed two runs over six innings in his Double-A debut, but the Altoona Curve lost in 11 innings to the Trenton Thunder, 4-2, in Sunday night's road trip finale at ARM & HAMMER Park.

The Curve (58-54) dropped two of three games on the road trip to the Thunder (75-37).
In the bottom of the 11^th, Rashad Crawford hit a two-out, two-run homer against Curve reliever Cody Dickson (Loss, 2-4) to lift Trenton to a walk-off win.
Keller worked six innings and allowed two runs on five hits with three walks and four strikeouts. He allowed just one hit, an infielder single in the first, over the first four innings of his outing before the Thunder scratched two runs across against him in the fifth on four hits.
Tweet from @AltoonaCurve: .@mkeller11 picks up his first Double-A strikeout in a scoreless first inning & we're under way in TrentonTune in: https://t.co/aTxgMatY1x pic.twitter.com/Ga5gI0kIod
Trailing 2-1 entering the ninth, Justin Maffei reached on a one-out walk and moved to third on a single by Jackson Williams, putting runners on the corners with one out. Cole Tucker followed with a sac fly to even the score at 2-2 against Trenton reliever Cody Carroll.
Tweet from @AltoonaCurve: 👔 TIE GAME!@cotuck brings home @J__Maffei with a sac fly and we're all even at 2-2 in the ninth inning pic.twitter.com/aiGPbxHZ5W
The Thunder opened the scoring in the fifth with an RBI single by Francisco Diaz and brought around a second run with a sacrifice fly by Jeff Hendrix.
Altoona cut the Trenton lead in half in the top of the sixth inning with a solo home run by Jin-De Jhang, his third of the season.
Tweet from @AltoonaCurve: 💣💣💣Jin-De Jhang blasts his third home run of the season to get us on the board in the sixth pic.twitter.com/4ED4xrvYQw
Alex McRae pitched two scoreless innings making his first relief appearance of the season, working around a hit and a walk with one strikeout. Luis Heredia worked two scoreless frames across the ninth and tenth.
Trenton starter Brady Koerner allowed one run over 5.1 innings on six hits with one walk and one strikeout. Raynel Espinal pitched 1.2 scoreless innings. Andrew Schwaab (Win, 1-0) pitched two scoreless innings.
The Curve remain a half-game behind the first-place Bowie Baysox in the E.L. West standings and hold a 2.5-game lead over Erie and Akron for the division's wild card spot.
After a day off on Monday, the Curve open a six-day, seven-game homestand with the first of three against the Reading Fightin Phils, Double-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, on Tuesday night. Right-hander Casey Sadler (1-2, 3.80) will be on the mound for the Curve, opposed by Reading right-hander Tyler Viza (8-7, 5.13). First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. at PNG Field.
Tuesday will be Two-for-Tuesday, presented by Atlantic Broadband, featuring buy-one, get-one-free specials on tickets, hot dogs and small popcorn. For tickets or more information, visit AltoonaCurve.com, call 877.99.CURVE or stop by the PNG Field box office.
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