CURVE, Pa. – The Trenton Thunder received a late, go-ahead RBI from Mandy Alvarez for the second night in row to beat the Altoona Curve, 4-2, at Peoples Natural Gas Field on Tuesday.
(Photo courtesy of Pittsburgh Pirates)
Tied 2-2 after seven innings, the Thunder (50-41, 12-14) plated two in their half of the eight on a two-out, two-strike double by Alvarez and an RBI single from Ben Ruta. In the bottom of the inning, the Curve (49-42, 14-10) loaded the bases with three straight singles off Trenton closer Daniel Alvarez (Save, 12) but failed to score. Altoona posted two more hits to start the ninth before Alvarez locked down the six-out save.
Curve starting pitcher Sean Brady held Trenton to two hits over six innings, recording his seventh straight quality start by holding them to two runs. Trenton’s first hit resulted in their first run in the second inning when Gosuke Katoh tripled off the right field wall following Brady’s two-out walk to Rashad Crawford. Their second hit was a game-tying, solo homer by Isiah Gilliam with two outs in the fourth.
Chris Sharpe got things started for the Curve in the bottom of the first with a solo home run, his fifth of the season, off Thunder starter Albert Abreu (Win, 5-7). Altoona broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the second with a sacrifice fly from Brett Pope.
Abreu struck out seven Curve batters and matched a season-high seven innings of work. Alvarez punched out three to help get out of his pair late-inning, no-out jams.
Beau Sulser (Loss, 7-1) shouldered his first losing decision of the season after he threw a perfect seventh inning prior to two runs allowed in the eighth. Matt Eckelman finished things for the Curve with a scoreless ninth inning to keep the team within two runs.
The Curve recorded 13 hits in the loss, stranded 10 and went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Logan Hill led the way with a 4-for-4 performance and swatted his third triple of the season in the third inning. Jason Delay and Sharpe each finished with two hits while Mitchell Tolman’s 17-game on-base streak was snapped with an 0-for-4 night at the dish.
The Curve and Thunder wrap up their three-game series on Wednesday with first pitch set for 6:30 p.m. The Curve will have left-hander Brandon Waddell (2-1, 1.44) take the rubber against Thunder right-hander Adonis Rosa (3-1, 4.19).
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