FROM THE ALTOONA CURVE:
Curve Split Saturday Night Doubleheader
Altoona and Erie each took a one-run win on Saturday night
CURVE, PA – The Altoona Curve (14-8) and Erie SeaWolves (15-8) each took a one-run victory in a doubleheader on Saturday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field. The Curve took the opener, 2-1, before dropping the finale, 5-4.
In game one of the doubleheader, the Curve fell behind 1-0 in the third inning after Kerry Carpenter doubled home Riley Greene. Curve starter Osvaldo Bido would come back to strike out Josh Lester to end the inning and strike out two more in the fourth inning to finish his outing. Bido allowed the one run on three hits and two walks and struck out a season-high six batters on 76 pitches, 47 strikes.
The Curve offense was kept off balance by Erie’s Mark Leiter Jr. as he retired nine straight batters to begin the game. Altoona broke through with three straight hits, leading to two runs, in the fourth inning. Ji-Hwan Bae led off the fourth with a triple and Oneil Cruz followed him with a double to right-center. Rodolfo Castro then ripped a single down the first base line to take a 2-1 lead that Altoona’s bullpen would make stand up.
Oddy Nunez fired two scoreless innings of relief allowing one hit and one walk with three strikeouts before giving way to John O’Reilly to lock down his second save of the season. O’Reilly needed just seven pitches to retire the side in order in the seventh inning and finish off the win.
Cal Mitchell extended his hit streak to seven straight games with a double in his final at-bat. Mitchell is batting .367 (11-for-30) with four extra base hits during his hot stretch at the plate. Brendt Citta saw his eight-game hit streak come to an end in the first game of the twin bill.
In game two, Erie jumped out to a 4-0 lead scoring two runs in each of the first two innings off Cam Vieaux. Ryan Kriedler slugged a two-run homer in the first inning and added an infield single that drove in a run in the second inning. Riley Greene added a run-scoring single in the second inning as well.
The Curve offense was held without a hit into the sixth inning, but managed two runs in the fourth of reliever Henry Martinez. After back-to-back walks to begin the inning, Oneil Cruz reached on an error by 2B John Valente to plate a pair of runs and make it a 4-2 game. In the sixth inning Cruz smashed his fourth home run of the season and Mason Martin followed him with his fourth homer of the season to tie the game at 4-4.
Erie rallied for three straight hits in the top of the seventh inning against reliever Yerry De Los Santos the SeaWolves took the lead on a Dylan Rosa blooper to right field to take a 5-4 lead. Gerson Moreno, who served up the back-to-back home runs in the sixth, finished off the game with a 1-2-3 bottom half of the inning.
Shea Murray and Hunter Stratton combined to throw four scoreless innings of relief in the defeat, recording four strikeouts.
Curve pitching struck out nine batters in each game of the 7-inning doubleheader.
The Curve wrap up their six-game series with Erie on Sunday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field at 6:00 p.m. RHP Jeff Passantino (0-1, 2.08) will make his third start of the season, Erie will start RHP Pedro Payano (1-1, 3.86).
