Curve Drop First Road Game of 2012, 7-3
April 12, 2012 - Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release
RICHMOND, Va. - Altoona was unable to dig itself out of an early 5-0 hole on Thursday night as they fell to the Flying Squirrels, 7-3, in front of a sellout crowd of 9,560 at The Diamond. The Curve collected three runs on seven hits but committed four errors in the first game of the seven-game road trip.
Richmond struck first in the second when they notched three runs on three hits. Juan Perez led off the frame with a hit to right, the only one of the inning to leave the infield, and moved to second when Wes Hodges hit a ball back up the middle. Jarek Cunningham tried to keep his foot on the bag while lunging for Hodges' groundball to make the out at second but was unable to reach the ball and everyone was safe. Daniel Mayora followed and batted a ball toward short that ate up Brock Holt and after the error the bases were loaded and everyone was safe.
Starter Mike Colla (0-1) recovered to get Ryan Cavan to fly out but it was the pitcher Jason Stevenson (1-1) who found the game's first run with an infield single that just got past Colla on the mound. With the bases still loaded, Colla walked Gary Brown to plate Richmond's second run. Ehire Adrianza followed with a sac fly and Richmond had the lead at 3-0.
Errors would continue in the third after back-to-back doubles by Johnny Monell and Juan Perez that scored a run. A fielding error by Elevys Gonzalez allowed Hodges to reach with no one out and put Perez on third. Mayora brought Perez in from third with a sac fly to make it 5-0 Richmond.
Altoona finally broke on to the scoreboard in the fourth off Stevenson when Holt singled to start the frame. Cunningham placed a bunt up the third base line that was fielded by Stevenson and then subsequently thrown up the first-base line and into right field. Holt came all the way around from first to score on the error while Cunningham ended up at third. He scored one batter later when Andrew Lambo grounded out to first.
Richmond tacked on two more, one on a solo homer by Hodges in the fifth and another on a Chris Dominguez single in the sixth. Colla finished five innings and allowed six runs (four earned) on nine hits before turning it over to the bullpen. Kris Harvey allowed one run in his two innings while Kyle Cofield did not permit a tally in his one frame of work.
The Curve plated their final run with two down in the ninth when Quincy Latimore doubled in Tony Sanchez who had walked earlier in the inning.
With the loss on Thursday night, Altoona (3-3) will look to jump back above .500 in the second game of the series on Friday night beginning at 6:35 p.m. LHP Nathan Baker (1-0, 1.80), who was victorious in his first Double-A start in Curve, Pa. last Friday night, makes his first road start of the season for the Curve while RHP Chris Heston (0-0, 0.00) tosses for the Squirrels (4-4).
Airtime on ESPN Radio 1430, WVAM and the Curve Radio Network is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. For tickets and more information on the upcoming Curve homestand that begins April 19th, call 877.99.CURVE, visit AltoonaCurve.com or stop by the box office windows at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
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