The Richmond Flying Squirrels (60-59) could not repeat their late-inning heroics from Friday night as they fell on Saturday night, 5-3 to the Altoona Curve in Eastern League action in front of a capacity crowd at The Diamond.
The Curve(63-57) charged ahead with a three-run sixth inning and held of the Squirrels late advances to pull even in the series. The sellout crowd of 9,560 was this fifth such capacity crowd in the 2015 season. The brief three game homestand concludes on Sunday afternoon with LHP Kelvin Marte on the mound.
Richmond jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning against Curve starting pitcher Zack Dodson. Devin Harris pushed a ground ball into right field with the bases loaded to drive in the first runs of the game. Engel Beltre plated the third run of the inning on a soft ground ball to score Mitch Delfino from third base. Dodson was able to then end the inning by striking out Joe Biagini to strand the bases loaded. Altoona countered with a run in the top of the second inning for a 3-1 score. Mel Rojas Jr. doubled to left center field against Biagini and scored on double from Eric Wood. Biagini then loaded the bases and struck out All-Star Max Moroff to keep the lead intact.
The Curve forged ahead with a three-run top of the sixth inning. Biagini loaded the bases on a pair of walks and a base hit. Altoona catcher Jacob Stallings then singled into center and Stetson Allie was hit by a pitch to tie the game, 3-3. Edwin Quirarte relieved Biagini with the bases loaded and Eric Wood connected on a sacrifice fly to center to give the Curve a 4-3 edge. Biagini had retired ten consecutive batters from the end of the second until the walk at the beginning of the sixth. He worked five innings and allowed four runs on six hits with three walks and four strikeouts.
Biagini (9-6) was saddled with the loss over five innings of work. He allowed four runs on six hits on 97 pitches. The bullpen trio of Edwin Quirarte, Phil McCormick Derek Law did not allow a run in relief. Tyler Mizenko yielded a run in the ninth to make it a 5-3 Altoona advantage.
Dodson (6-10) earned the win over five and two thirds innings of work. The lefty was removed for reliever Brett McKinney with a runner on third base and two outs in the sixth. McKiney earned the hold and reliever Clario Perez picked up his first save of the season with a scoreless ninth.
The Squirrels conclude the brief three game homestand on Sunday afternoon against the Altoona Curve. LHP Kelvin Marte (9-4, 2.53) will start for the Squirrels against Curve RHP Jason Creasy (8-7, 4.66). First pitch is set for 1:35 PM with the Flying Squirrels Pregame Warmup starting at 1:35 PM on Fox Sports 910 and FoxSportsRichmond.com.
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Chris Graham
