CURVE, Pa. – Bligh Madris’ two-run double to center field broke an eighth-inning tie and powered the Altoona Curve to an 8-6 win over the Richmond Flying Squirrels on Sunday at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
(Photo courtesy of Altoona Curve)
With the Curve (11-11) leading 6-2 after seven innings, the Flying Squirrels (8-12) tied the game with four runs off Matt Eckelman (Win, 1-0) before the rally in the home half of the inning. Richmond sent eight men to the plate and produced four runs, starting with Hamlet Marte’s lead-off solo dinger to left. Chris Shaw added an RBI double to right and Brock Stassi tied the score with a two-run homer to right.
Altoona’s bats responded in the bottom of the inning against Squirrels’ reliever Ryan Halstead (Loss, 1-1). Adrian Valerio, who entered the game in the top of the inning in a double switch, singled to left to start the frame and moved to second on Jared Oliva’s sacrifice bunt. Brett Pope was hit by a pitch to put two men on for the next batter, Madris, who crushed a two-run, go-ahead double to dead center.
Mitchell Tolman and Hunter Owen played a key role as the Curve built up their lead in the middle innings. Down 2-0, the Curve answered with three straight two-out hits to tie the game, 2-2, in the bottom of the fourth off Richmond starter Alfred Gutierrez. Owen started the rally with a double to left and scored on Bralin Jackson’s RBI single to right, before Tolman’s game-tying, RBI triple into the right-field corner.
The game remained tied until the Curve tagged Squirrels reliever Kieran Lovegrove for three, two-out runs in the sixth. Tolman blasted a solo homer to center to break the tie and Oliva extended the lead to 5-2 with a two-run double into the left-field corner. Owen added a solo homer to left in the seventh, his sixth of the season, off Richmond reliever Tyler Cyr as the Curve pushed their lead four.
The Flying Squirrels struck first during the third when Jalen Miller smacked a lead-off homer to left off Curve starter Yeudy Garcia. Miller delivered a second RBI with a bases-loaded walk one inning later as Richmond went up 2-0.
Despite allowing four runs in an inning of work, Eckelman earned the win. Vicente Campos (Save, 1-0) struck out two batters in a perfect ninth inning to close out the 8-6 victory. Beau Sulser and Jake Brentz combined for 3.1 scoreless innings in middle relief for Altoona.
Tolman led the offense with a 3-for-4 day with his home run and triple. Owen collected two extra-base hits with a double and homer while going 2-for-4. Madris, Oliva and Jackson also had a pair of base hits in the win.
After taking two of three from Richmond, the Curve will meet the Erie Seawolves for three games at PNG Field starting on Monday at 6 p.m. Left-hander Cam Vieaux (0-1, 2.49) will start for the Curve. The first overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft, right-hander Casey Mize, is scheduled to make his Double-A debut against the Curve for Erie on Monday.
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