Curve defensive miscues costly
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Tonight: Harrisburg at Altoona, 6 p.m.
Pitchers: Senators TBA vs. Curve RHP Aaron Shortridge (0-0)
Record: 2-1
By Adam Babetski
For the Mirror
Altoona's poor fielding performance led to a late-inning collapse, as the Curve lost to Harrisburg, 9-3, in front of a crowd of 3,383 at Peoples Natural Gas Field Thursday.
Harrisburg second baseman Jackson Cluff started the scoring in the second inning with an RBI triple. Cluff later scored on a single by Gilbert Lara to put the Senators up, 2-0.
Altoona pushed across a run in the bottom of the third when center fielder Connor Scott worked a walk, stole second, and came home on a single from Matt Fraizer.
With two on and one out, catcher Henry Davis bailed out Harrisburg by grounding into a double play.
Harrisburg's lead held until the bottom of the sixth. With two outs, Scott laced a two-run double into the left-field corner to give Altoona a 3-2 lead.
The Curve could not keep the momentum going in a disastrous seventh inning that featured three errors. Shortstop Jared Triolo misplayed a grounder, which helped Harrisburg load the bases with no outs. After Triolo dropped a foul pop-up that would have ended the inning, second baseman Liover Peguero booted a grounder that put the Senators back on top.
The hits would keep on coming for Harrisburg, which ended up sending 12 men to the plate while scoring seven runs. Manager Kieran Mattison said that Altoona's "mental mistakes" let the game slip away.
"We allowed the game to speed up on us," he said. "We weren't able to stop the bleeding in time, and let the inning get out of hand."
Altoona would go quietly in the next three innings to cement the final score.
Walking the bases
Despite recording just four hits, the Curve were constantly threatening on the base paths. Altoona drew eight walks against Harrisburg, but could not capitalize.
"We were only able to take advantage of those walks in one inning, when Scotty got the two-run double to give us the lead," he said. "We had some opportunities early on, if we got that type of hit, it would have been a different ballgame going into the seventh inning."
Injury update
Star outfielder Matt Gorski was carted off the field on Wednesday after he injured his leg while rounding the bases. Mattison said that an MRI showed a quad injury, and Gorski will be out until at least September.
"Hopefully he'll be able to salvage the season, maybe play the last few weeks," he said. "It's a significant injury."
Gorski was enjoying a breakout season in the minors before his injury, hitting 23 home runs between Altoona and High-A Greensboro.
With honor
The Curve paid homage to the Altoona Mountain City, a professional baseball team that played for the short-lived Union Association in 1884. Altoona took the field sporting green and black jerseys with a "Mountain City" logo emblazoned on the front.