It happened again in Altoona on Thursday night. For the second consecutive game, Altoona (61-49) defeated the Squirrels (45-64) in extra innings by a final of 2-1 at Peoples Natural Gas Field. Edwin Espinal, 24 hours after smashing a walk-off homer on Wednesday, delivered the game-winning RBI, in the tenth. The late-inning loss wasted a phenomenal outing from Richmond hurler Tyler Beede. Beede tossed seven scoreless innings in the effort. Steven Duggar added two more hits and extended his hitting streak to 11 games in the loss.
Starting pitchers Tyler Eppler and Tyler Beede set the tone for the contest early on. Eppler was able to keep the Squirrels off the board through the first three innings despite a heavy pitch load. Chris Shaw disrupted Eppler’s rhythm and gave Richmond a 1-0 lead in the fourth. Shaw drilled a towering home run off the Skyliner Roller Coaster in right field to put the Squirrels ahead. It was Shaw’s second home run with the Squirrels and his 18th overall on the season.
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Richmond’s Beede was outstanding from start to finish and placed his team in a position to win. Beede chewed through the Altoona lineup and did not allow a run in his 19th start of the season. Beede punched out the final batter of the third inning and then struck out the side in the fourth. He added another K, this time of Barrett Barnes, to open the fifth inning, securing his fifth consecutive strikeout. Despite the early strikeouts, Beede needed just 65 pitches through the first five innings.
Altoona’s Eppler quickly regained control following the homer to Shaw. Eppler struck out a pair in the fifth and two more in the sixth. The Sam Houston State product finished off seven innings and dealt 104 pitches. He allowed the one run on six hits while striking out six in the no-decision
The Curve had their best opportunity to score against Beede in the sixth inning. With two outs, Kevin Newman stroked a single to center and Eric Wood followed with a base hit. It was the first and only time in the game Beede pitched with more then one runner on base. He closed out the inning and returned for a scoreless seventh to finish his outing. Beede allowed no runs on four hits over the seven innings in the no-decision. The righty struck out a season-high tying nine batters andleft with a 1-0 lead.
Hard-throwing righty Carlos Alvarado replaced Beede to start the eighth inning. Alvarado struck out the first batter but was undone by an error that allowed Elvis Escobar to each safely at first. Escobar came around to tie the game on a hit-and-run double off the bat of Erich Weiss. Weiss lofted double to right center field, leveling the contest, 1-1.
The Curve bullpen trio of Jared Lakind, Montana DuRapau and Johndaniel Media kept Richmond off the board, forcing the game into extras. Medina (1-2) earned the win by pitching the scoreless tenth.
The Squirrels used Rodolfo Martinez in the ninth inning and turned to Tyler Mizenko in the tenth. Catcher Jin-De Jhang rolled a base hit into right field to open the inning and was bunted up to second base by Elvis Escobar. A throwing error on the play advanced runners to second and third, leading Mizenko to issue an intentional walk to load the bases. Mizenko struck out the next hitter for the first out in the inning, but Edwin Espinal was able to lift a fly ball to right field for a game-winning sacrifice fly.