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Altoona Curve

Altoona Falls in Front of Season-Best Crowd on Sunday Night

June 5, 2011 - Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release


CURVE, Pa. - Altoona's Jordy Mercer homered twice and drove in three runs in front of a season-best crowd of 6,193 at Blair County Ballpark on Sunday night but it wasn't enough as the Sea Dogs completed the sweep of the Curve with a, 12-4, win. It was the second multi-home run game of the year for Mercer, who leads the team in home runs with 10.

Portland jumped on starter Aaron Pribanic (5-3) in the first frame as they scored three runs while sending eight men to the plate. RBI hits by Ryan Lavarnway, Will Middlebrooks and Jon Hee plated the runs for the Sea Dogs. They'd tack on one more thanks to an RBI groundout by Alex Hassan in the second and after two, Portland led 4-0.

Mercer homered to start the fourth inning off of Sea Dogs starter Chris Balcom-Miller (1-1) to pull the Curve back within three. Pribanic settled down and put down eight Portland hitters in a row from the second through the fourth innings. He finished a total of five innings and allowed five runs on eight hits with a pair of walks and four strikeouts.

Aaron Thompson tossed a scoreless sixth in his first relief appearance of the year for Altoona. Donnie Veal, who was promoted to Altoona earlier in the day, allowed a pair of home runs in his lone inning of work as the Sea Dogs scored three times in the seventh. The 'Dogs struck for four runs in the eighth off reliever Diego Moreno as Chih-Hsien Chiang hit an opposite-field grand slam, the second grand slam of the year for the Sea Dogs.

Altoona scored again with two down in the eighth thanks to Mercer when he homered for the second time in the game, this time off reliever Caleb Clay. He hit three home runs in 126 games with the Curve in 2010 and already has 10 this season.

Kris Watts added a home run in the ninth and finished the day 3-for-4.

After an off day on Monday, Altoona (28-28) continues its homestand on Tuesday when the Erie SeaWolves, Double-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, visit BCB beginning at 7 p.m. It will be a Two-for-Tuesday on Tuesday night with fans receiving two-for-one offers on tickets, hot dogs and small popcorns thanks to Atlantic Broadband and KRAFT Singles.

LHP Jeff Locke (4-5, 4.99) takes the mound for Altoona in the opener with the 'Wolves while RHP Mark Sorensen (5-2, 4.43) throws for Erie. Gates for Tuesday night's game will swing open at 6 p.m. and air time on ESPN Radio 1430, WVAM and the Curve Radio Network is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

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