Meadows homers to extend streak but Curve fall in finale to B-Mets
Win: Robert Gsellman (3-4)
Loss: Frank Duncan (3-2)
Save: Akeel Morris (5)
TOG: 2:07
Attendance: 3,592
CURVE, Pa. - Austin Meadows extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a home run, but the Curve lost the series finale to the Binghamton Mets, 4-3, on Sunday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
The Curve (31-24) lost two-of-three in the series to the B-Mets (23-32), dropped a series for the first time since May 1.
After taking away a hit from Jared King with a diving catch in center field in the top of the ninth, Meadows led off the bottom of the inning with a solo homer over the right-field wall to bring the Curve within a run.
Akeel Morris (Save, 5) followed with a walk to Barrett Barnes, who was sacrificed over to second base. With the tying run in scoring position, Morris struck out Edwin Espinal and Stetson Allie to end the game.
With the Curve leading 2-0, Binghamton scored four runs in the fourth against starter Frank Duncan (Loss, 3-2). Dominic Smith singled in a run and Victor Cruzado bounced a ground-rule double over the right field wall to tie the game 2-2. Colton Plaia brought the go-ahead run across with a groundout and Stefan Sabol followed with a run-scoring single to push the lead to 4-2.
The Curve opened the scoring in the second inning. Reese McGuire led off with a double and came in to score on a double by Edwin Espinal. Two batters later, Chris Diaz brought him across with a groundout to put the Curve ahead, 2-0.
Binghamton starter Robert Gsellman (Win, 3-4) allowed two runs on six hits with no walks and four strikeouts in eight innings.
Altoona reliever Josh Smith pitched two scoreless innings with two strikeouts, and Dovydas Neverauskas pitched a 1-2-3 ninth with two strikeouts.
The 14-game hitting streak for Meadows is the longest by a Curve hitter this season, the longest active streak by an active Eastern League player and the third-longest streak for an E.L. batter this year. Since the streak began on May 23, Meadows has raised his average from .192 to .296 while hitting .443 (23-for-52) with eight multi-hit games. In that time he has hit two home runs, six triples, four doubles, brought in nine runs, scored 14 runs, swiped five bases and worked five walks with just five strikeouts. He also has a 19-game on-base streak.
The Curve hit the road to face the Erie SeaWolves on Monday night. Altoona's starting pitcher has not yet been announced. Right-hander Cory Riordan (3-4, 5.01) will be on the mound for the SeaWolves. First pitch at Jerry Uht Park is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
-CURVE-