Meadows lifts Curve with bat, glove in 9-4 victory over Baysox
Win: Tyler Eppler (3-3)
Loss: Jon Keller (0-1)
Save: --
TOG: 3:04
Attendance: 1,890
BOWIE, Md. - Austin Meadows stole a home run and helped spark an offensive rally with his bat as the Altoona Curve came from behind to defeat the Bowie Baysox, 9-4, on Monday afternoon at Prince George's Stadium.
The Curve (28-21) took three out of the four games in the series from the defending champion Baysox (19-30).
Meadows finished the game 3-for-3 with a homer, three RBIs, two runs scored, a walk and two stolen bases. He also robbed what would have been a three-run homer from former Curve Quincy Latimore.
With two runners on and the Curve trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the fourth, Latimore hit a deep drive to center field, but Meadows sprinted back to the wall, reached over the fence and caught the ball to end the inning.
In the next inning, Meadows crushed his first regular-season Double-A homer off of Bowie starter Jason Garcia over the right-field wall and out of the ballpark to close the gap to two in the fifth.
Two pitches later, Garcia hit Jose Osuna with a pitch. Later in the inning, Eric Wood brought him in to score with a sacrifice fly to bring the Curve within a run.
After back-to-back singles to open the sixth, Anderson Feliz hit an RBI double off Jon Keller (Loss, 0-1) to plate the tying run, and came in to score on a single by Meadows, putting the Curve in front, 5-4.
Jin-De Jhang added a two-run double and Wood hit another sacrifice fly to cap a five-run sixth inning, stretching the Curve lead to 8-4.
Celebrating his 26th birthday, Jon Schwind clubbed a solo home run in the ninth inning.
The Altoona bullpen combined for four scoreless innings to finish the day. Lefty Jared Lakind worked through the sixth and seventh, allowing two hits and a walk while striking out two. He has not allowed a run over his last 15.2 innings and has 11 consecutive scoreless appearances.
Dovydas Neveraukas worked perfectly through the eighth and ninth innings, striking out two batters. He has not allowed a run in his last 12 outings, a span of 17.0 scoreless innings in a row.
Tucker Nathans gave the Baysox the lead with a solo homer in the bottom of the first. Drew Dosch knocked an RBI single to center to push the lead to 2-0 in the second. Meadows got the Curve on the board with a sacrifice fly in the third, but the Baysox added two runs in the fourth against Altoona starter Tyler Eppler (Win, 3-3).
Eppler lasted five innings and allowed four runs on nine hits and walked three batters, matching a career high. He finished his outing with a 1-2-3 fifth inning.
Altoona manager Joey Cora was ejected by third-base umpire Paul Clemons after arguing in the fifth inning when Garcia hit Osuna with a pitch, the third Curve batter that he had drilled in the game. After warnings were issued to both teams, Bowie manager Gary Kendall was ejected for arguing with home plate umpire Scott Costello, just seconds after Cora was tossed.
The fifth-inning homer by Meadows was his first since the first game of last year's Western Division Series, when the Pirates' second-ranked prospect hit a game-tying homer in the bottom of the ninth inning in the Curve's seven-run comeback win over the Baysox.
After hitting .192 through his first 21 games this year, Meadows is currently on an eight-game hitting streak, lifting his average to .277. Over the streak, the outfielder is batting .500 (14-for-28) with a home run, four doubles and a triple. He has five multi-hit games during the streak, including nine hits over his last four games.
The Curve head to Akron to open a three-game series against the RubberDucks on Tuesday night. Right-hander David Whitehead (2-4, 5.45) will be on the mound for Altoona, with lefty Shawn Morimando (8-0, 1.65) pitching for Akron. First pitch at Canal Park is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.
The Curve return to PNG Field on Friday for Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Night, featuring the Daniel Tiger Plays Ball Figurine Giveaway to the first 1,000 fans ages 10 & under, presented by the Altoona Grand Hotel. The night will also feature a spectacular fireworks show. For tickets and more information, visit AltoonaCurve.com, call 877.99.CURVE or stop by the PNG Field box office.
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