CURVE, Pa. – Erich Weiss delivered a pinch-hit, two-run single to left field to walk the Altoona Curve off for the first time this season against the Akron RubberDucks, 3-2, on Thursday afternoon at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
Altoona (25-20) finishes its homestand with a 3-2 record and salvages a split of the four-game set against Akron (33-13), who continue to hold the best record in professional baseball.
All three of the Curve’s runs came in the bottom of the ninth, as Edwin Espinal and Jin-De Jhang knocked consecutive one-out hits and Austin Meadows singled with two outs to load the bases before Barrett Barnes drew a walk to drive home the first run of the game for the Curve, and bring Altoona within 2-1, before Weiss knocked home the winning runs against Perci Garner (Loss, 4-1).
Montana DuRapau (Win, 1-0) earned his first regular-season Double-A win after tossing a perfect top of the ninth inning.
Curve starter David Whitehead (Loss, 2-5) held the RubberDucks to one hit over his 5.1 innings, walking five and striking out two while also allowing one unearned run.
Akron scored the first run of the game the top of the sixth on a RBI groundout by Bryson Myles to score Todd Hankins, who moved to third base on a passed ball, giving the Ducks a 1-0 lead.
Akron starter Shawn Morimando did not pick up a decision for just the second time this year – both no-decisions have come against the Curve – despite blanking Altoona over seven innings, scattering three hits and striking out eight.
The RubberDucks added to their lead with a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh from Ivan Castillo to score Joe Sever, giving Akron a 2-0 lead.
Dovydas Neverauskas extended his scoreless streak to 15 consecutive innings after setting the RubberDucks down in order in the top of the eighth, striking out the first two batters he faced.
Espinal logged the only multi-hit game of the day for the Curve, going 2-for-4 and began the ninth-inning rally.
The Curve open a seven-game road trip on Friday with the first of a four-game series against the Bowie Baysox with a 7:05 p.m. first pitch from Bowie. Curve left-hander Cody Dickson (2-2, 4.97) gets the start for Altoona, while Bowie will throw southpaw Jayson Aquino (1-4, 4.91)
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