Early Homers Turn Squirrels to Angry Elves in Curve Win
July 15, 2022 - Eastern League (EL)
Altoona Curve News Release
CURVE, Pa. - Aaron Shackelford recorded his second multi-home run game of the season and Curve pitchers struck out 13 Flying Squirrels as Altoona bested Richmond, 4-2, on Friday night on Christmas in July night at PNG Field.
The Curve (10-6, 43-42) jumped out to an early 3-0 lead after back-to-back home runs from Blake Sabol and Shackelford in the first inning. Jared Triolo drew a lead-off walk on Richmond's starter Matt Frisbee. Two batters later, Sabol smacked his 11th home run of the season over the right-center wall, his second home run in consecutive games.
In the next at-bat, Shackelford challenged the same spot in right-center to give the Curve the early advantage. It was the second time this season that the Curve hit back-to-back home runs, with the first occurrence coming from Andres Alvarez and Shackelford back on May 22 against Richmond.
Shackelford then returned to the plate in the bottom of the third inning and hit a second home run of the game, a solo shot to right field off Frisbee to give the Curve a 4-0 lead. It was the third time this season a Curve batter has hit two home runs, and the second for Shackelford. He finished the game with three hits.
Curve starter Luis Ortiz was dominant over his four innings of work. He allowed just two hits on six strikeouts, including an immaculate inning where he struck out three batters on nine pitches in the second inning. Nick Dombkowski followed with four strong innings of relief, striking out six batters of his own on three hits. He allowed a pair of solo home runs to Tyler Fitzgerald, once in the fifth inning and once in the eighth.
Tyler Samaniego earned his seventh save with Altoona after working a scoreless ninth with one strikeout. The 13 strikeouts by Altoona pitchers matched a season-high in nine-inning games for the Curve pitching staff.
Richmond's bullpen combined to toss 3.1 scoreless frames without allowing a hit to Altoona to end the game. Ryan Walker struck out two batters in 1.1 innings, entering in the fifth for Frisbee. Nick Avila made his Double-A debut and worked a clean seventh with one walk and no hits, before Cole Waites struck out one in a 1-2-3 eighth.
Altoona continues its six-game series with the Richmond Flying Squirrels, Double-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, on Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. RHP Quinn Priester takes the ball for Altoona, with RHP Wil Jensen on the mound for the Flying Squirrels.
For tickets and more information about Curve Baseball, visit AltoonaCurve.com, call 877.99.CURVE or stop by the PNG Field box office.
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