Down 5-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning on Thursday evening, the Altoona Curve put together some of their best at-bats of the game.
After leaving the bases loaded in the sixth when they were still down three runs, the Curve put together a rally to tie the game. After giving up a run in the top of the 10th, a Javier Rivas base hit scored Will Taylor to tie the game again.
With the bases loaded and two outs and a full count, Duce Gourson worked a walk off Erie relief pitcher Trevin Michael to take home a 7-6 win in 10 innings in front of 2,950 fans.
“Shout out to the team,” Gourson said. “They put us in a really good position to get back in this. Everyone put together good at-bats in the bottom of the 10th. Even leading up to that there were really good at-bats by everyone.”
“His at-bats have been getting better slowly but surely,” Curve manager Andy Fox said. “Hopefully it’s something to build on.”
Putting together good at-bats has been a key in the Curve playing better baseball over the last month. After losing its first 12 games of the season, Altoona has gone 17-13 in the last 30 games, and are now only a ½ game back of climbing out of last place in the Eastern League Southwest Division.
“We did a really good job with two strikes, and put the ball in play,” Fox said. “(In the eighth inning) I don’t think we hit a ball out of the infield. It shows when you put the ball in play, good things can happen.”
With the game tied at 5 in the bottom of the eighth, Gourson looked to have the game-winning base hit with a single through the left side. However the ball hit Keiner Delgado, who had just had a 2-run double to tie the game one batter earlier.
Could Delgado have avoided the ball hitting him? Fox wasn’t sure if there was a solution.
“The only thing I can think of is he thought it would stay on the ground and it popped up on him,” Fox said.
Curve starter Connor Wietgrefe went 3ª innings and allowed three earned runs on four hits. Alessandro Ercolani got the win after throwing two innings and only allowing the ghost runner in the top of the 10th to score for an unearned run.
Streak snapped
The Curve had a streak of 12 games without an error going into Thursday. That was snapped in the second inning on back-to-back plays that resulted in errors by Delgado and Gourson.
Still, it’s a strong sign of the improvement through a little less than two months through the season.
“I wish we didn’t make two in the same inning today,” Gourson said. “If we can play good defense behind our guys, we have a really good staff. We’ll be in a position to win a lot of games.”
Respect 90
Baseball players are taught to run everything out at a young age, no matter the circumstances. Javier Rivas must have taken that lesson to heart in Little League.
On a routine bouncer back to Erie relief pitcher Johan Simon in the sixth inning, Rivas hustled down the first base line and beat out an underhand throw from Simon for a base hit.
“We try to preach, ‘Play hard. You never know what’s going to happen,’” Fox said. “Run balls out and you might force an errant throw or whatever it is. This group as a whole has played hard all year, so it doesn’t surprise me.”
Up next
The series continues this evening at 6 p.m. Right-hander Peyton Stumbo will get the ball for the Curve, while the SeaWolves will start RHP Kenny Serwa.
