King Kelson Hoists Curve Past Aeros in Finale
June 25, 2012 - Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release
CURVE, Pa. - Curve shortstop Kelson Brown hadn't homered in his first 582 professional at bats but homered in back-to-back at bats to help lead the Curve past Akron, 13-8, on Monday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field. Brown, who ended the day 3-for-3, entered the game in the third inning after shortstop Brock Holt was hit by a pitch and subsequently ejected while walking up the first-base line.
It was a see-saw affair on Monday night as the Curve held leads of 2-0, 3-1, 8-5 and then finally 9-8 after Brown's first home run in the bottom half of the seventh. His homer broke an 8-8 tie that resulted after Akron's Thomas Neal hit a three-run homer off Mike Colla (3-4) to tie the game. Brown's homer wasn't the only run scored in the seventh as the Curve bats went back to work with two down off Kyle Landis (4-3).
Stefan Welch, who went 3-for-4 on the evening, found his third hit of the game to start the rally and then stole second before Quincy Latimore drove him in to make it 10-8 Curve. With Latimore at second, Charlie Cutler got in on the hit parade and singled back through the middle to bring Latimore home for a three-run Curve lead. Jeremy Farrell followed suit and singled into center to put runners at first and second.
Evan Chambers laced a double into the left-field corner that scored Cutler from second and Farrell tried to score as well but was thrown out at the plate. When the dust settled, the Curve led, 12-8.
Jeff Inman tiptoed around three singles to leadoff Akron's half of the eighth before he induced a 1-2-3 double play for the inning's first two outs. The Stanford product got the inning's final out on a groundout from Chun Chen and sent the game to the bottom half where Brown hit his second homer of the night and his career.
Altoona's 13 runs wrapped up a potent offensive homestand as they scored 53 runs the seven game series for an average of better than 7.5 runs per game. Before he was ejected, Holt found a hit in his first at bat to run his consecutive games on base streak to 21 games. Welch and Brown were a part of a trio of Curve players to record three hits as Cutler was also a part of the three-hit crew. Altoona's five through nine hitters drove in nine of the team's 13 runs on Monday night.
Fresh off a big win over Akron, the Curve (35-39) embark on their second-longest road trip of the year as they'll spend eight days away from Curve, Pa. The first of eight will come tomorrow night as they take on the Senators (AA - Nationals) on City Island beginning at 7 p.m. Curve RHP Gerrit Cole (1-0, 3.60) gets the starting nod in the opener of the road trip and will make the first road start of his Double-A career. He'll be opposed on the mound by Harrisburg's Rob Gilliam (1-7, 5.37), who will be making his 14th start of the year and third against Altoona.
Airtime on ESPN Radio 1430, WVAM and the Curve Radio Network is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. For information on the Ballpark Blockparty 2012 or the Curve's next homestand that begins July 4th, call 877.99.CURVE, visit AltoonaCurve.com or stop by the box offices at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
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Eastern League Stories from June 25, 2012
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