CURVE, Pa. -- The Altoona Curve rode a six-run fourth inning and another dominant start from James Marvel en route to an 8-5 win over the Binghamton Rumble Ponies on Sunday at Peoples Natural Gas Field. The Curve completed their third comeback win in the series in the rubber match
CURVE, Pa. -- The Altoona Curve rode a six-run fourth inning and another dominant start from James Marvel en route to an 8-5 win over the Binghamton Rumble Ponies on Sunday at Peoples Natural Gas Field. The Curve completed their third comeback win in the series in the rubber match with Binghamton.
The Curve (42-37, 7-5) trailed 2-1 entering the bottom of the fourth when they sent 10 men to the plate and scored six times with two outs. Chris Sharpe crushed a grand slam to left off Rumble Ponies (40-38, 5-9) starter Austin McGeorge (Loss, 0-3) for his second Double-A home run. Altoona tacked on two more in the frame and all six runs were unearned because of two Binghamton errors. McGeorge allowed six runs, one earned, on nine hits in 3.2 innings.
Marvel (Win, 9-5) gave up two first-inning runs on a two-run homer to Barrett Barnes but allowed just one hit after the homer and retired the final 10 batters he faced. Marvel limited the Rumble Ponies to two runs on three hits in seven innings. The right-hander struck out three, walked one and earned his Double-A-best ninth win. Barnes hit three homers in the series and finished the five-game stretch with seven RBIs.
Austin Coley took over for Marvel in the eighth and allowed a two-out, three-run triple to Luis Carpio, but all three runs were unearned because of an error on shortstop Gift Ngoepe earlier in the inning. Matt Eckelman (Save, 13) pitched the ninth and retired the first two batters he faced before he allowed two infield singles to bring the tying run to the plate. Eckelman came back and retired Quinn Brodey on a fielder's choice grounder to end the game. It was the 24th save of Eckelman's Curve career which puts him in a tie for fourth on the franchise's all-time saves list.
Jared Oliva and Arden Pabst each hit a solo homer in the win. Oliva collected hits in each of his first three at-bats and finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a stolen base. Pabst hit a single prior to his homer and went 2-for-4. Bligh Madris , who drove in a run in the fourth, and Ngoepe each had two hits as well.
With the win, the Curve finished June with a 19-9 record in June, the second-best mark in the league, and won 7 of 8 series.
The Curve head to Akron on Monday to start a three-game series with the RubberDucks at 7:05 p.m. Right-hander Cody Bolton (0-1, 8.31) will start for the Curve against Akron left-hander Tanner Tully (6-7, 4.54).
The Curve return home on Thursday, July 4 to open a four-game series against the Erie SeaWolves at PNG Field. The series opens with a July 4th Celebration, presented by the Pennsylvania Lottery and Fourth of July postgame FIREWORKS, presented by the Pennsylvania Lottery. Fans can also enjoy live pregame music from Matt Pletcher and the PDX as part of the Curve Concert Series, presented by Unlimited Cycle Center.
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