The Altoona Curve (49-66) earned their third straight victory over the Richmond Flying Squirrels (66-48), 7-6, at Peoples Natural Gas Field on Saturday night. The loss marked the fourth straight for the Squirrels, who have also dropped seven of their last nine games. However, Akron also lost again, preserving Richmond’s 6 ½ division lead.
Kelby Tomlinson did lead off the ballgame with a bang, belting his first home run of the season for a 1-0 Richmond lead. The solo-shot to left field came off of Curve right-hander Adrian Sampson.
The Curve missed an opportunity to tie the ballgame in the first inning, but broke through against lefty Jack Snodgrass in the second to square the score, 1-1. Elias Diaz and Willy Garcia opened the inning with back-to-back singles, but Diaz was thrown out trying to take third base on Garcia’s single. However, Keon Broxton then made it three consecutive singles to put runners at the corners. Gift Ngoepe followed and lifted a sacrifice-fly to left field to tie the game, 1-1.
Snodgrass reached on an error when he led off the third and the Squirrels used the opening to snatch the lead right back. Sampson followed the error – charged to Alen Hanson – by plunking Tomlinson to put two aboard. Tyler Graham bunted the runners up and Mario Lisson knocked in Snodgrass with a single through the left-side of the infield. Devin Harris then made it a two-run Richmond lead with a sacrifice-fly to left field.
Altoona cut the lead to one with another run off Snodgrass in the third. Snodgrass easily recorded the first two outs of the inning, but Josh Bell sparked the Curve with a single to right field. Snodgrass then grazed Stetson Allie with a pitch to put two aboard. Diaz then plated Bell with a broken-bat single to center field to trim the Richmond lead to a lone run, 3-2.
The Curve grabbed the lead for the first time in the fifth inning. Snodgrass walked Hanson to start the inning and an out later Bell singled to put two aboard. Another out later, Diaz cracked a two-run double up the third-base line. Diaz’s third hit of the night made it 4-3 for the Curve.
Altoona plated two more runs as Snodgrass departed in the sixth inning. Snodgrass walked two before calling it a night. Right-hander Cody Hall relieved Snodgrass, but allowed both inherited runners to score for a 6-3 advantage.
Snodgrass (9-5) endured his fifth loss of the season over 5 1/3 innings. He surrendered six earned runs on eight hits, walked four, hit two more and struck out four.
Sampson (10-5) settled in and earned the win – his 10th – across seven innings. He allowed three runs – one earned – on four hits, walked one, hit two and struck out two.
The Curve tacked on a run against Hall in the seventh inning.
The Squirrels weren’t done for the night, fighting back into the ballgame with three runs in the eighth inning. Right-hander Matt Benedict started the inning on the hill and conceded a lead-off double to Lisson. Lisson scored on back-to-back groundouts before Benedict walked Ricky Oropesa with two outs. Benedict was removed in favor of lefty Joely Rodriguez, who quickly conceded back-to-back infield-singles to Eliezer Zambrano and Skyler Stromsmoe. Newcomer Blake Miller then punched a two-run single to right field. Miller’s first Double-A hit pulled the Squirrels within a run, 7-6.
Richmond got no closer however, as Rodriguez recovered to retire Richmond in order in the ninth inning. Rodriguez earned the save for his efforts.
The finale of the four-game series is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Sunday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field. Richmond RHP Clayton Blackburn (3-5, 2.73) will make the start against Altoona RHP Angel Sanchez (0-0, —). The Flying Squirrels Pregame Warmup begins at 5:30 p.m. on Sports Radio 910 and SportsRadio910.com.
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Chris Graham
