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By Jarrod Prugar
For the Mirror
Liover Peguero and spectacular pitching paved the way as the Altoona Curve swept the Bowie Baysox in a doubleheader Wednesday night with scores of 3-2 and 1-0 in front of 4,113 fans at PNG Field.
In game one, it was timely hitting that helped propel the Curve over the Baysox with Peguero lacing a double to put runners on second and third to start the third inning.
Lolo Sanchez notched a two-run single to put Altoona up 2-1 before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Jacob Gonzales later in the inning.
It was a pitcher's duel in game two with Nick Dombkowski throwing four shutout innings to aid the Curve. Meanwhile, Peguero did the entirety of the offensive lifting with one swing of the bat in the bottom of the first inning with a leadoff home run.
"I think when you look at that game Peguero set the tone right away," Altoona manager Callix Crabbe said. "It's always tricky because double headers are either gonna be low scoring or they're gonna be they're gonna be a lot of runs."
Ashcraft dazzles
RHP Braxton Ashcraft was promoted prior to the series against Bowie beginning on Tuesday.
Ashcraft made his Double-A debut and did not disappoint. He went three innings allowing one run, though it wasn't earned while striking out four and allowing two hits.
"It just felt good to get the monkey off my back," Ashcraft said. "Coming out of surgery the main focus throughout the year is going to be healthy, but I mean to throw well all year like I have, it's been a blessing."
Bullpen shines
In seven innings of work the bullpen allowed only one run and two hits over the two games.
The lone run was a Jud Fabian home run off Justin Meis in game one which pushed Altoona's streak of allowing a home run to 13 games before coming to a screeching halt in the second game of the double header.
They look convicted," Crabbe said. "That's something that I talked to them about before the series started. When you get out there don't worry about the bad things that you don't want to see happen. Focus on the positive things and it looked like they did that tonight."
Strong effort in loss
After a leadoff home run to Liover Peguero to start game two, Bowie starter Connor Gillispie retired the next 18 batters in a row.
Gillispie allowed only one hit, one run and struck out five in the process.
Next up
It will be RHP Sean Sullivan who gets the nod Thursday for Altoona. Sullivan sits at 2-0 with a 2.87 ERA in 10 starts this season.
Last week, he went 3.1 innings allowing only one earned against Somerset.