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HARRISBURG -- Altoona starter Aaron Shortridge matched a career-high with nine strikeouts across five scoreless innings on Sunday night as the Curve picked up a second consecutive win over the Harrisburg Senators, 2-0, at FNB Field.
It was the third shutout victory of the season for Altoona. The nine strikeouts for Shortridge matched the career-mark he set on July 16, 2018, while pitching with the West Virginia Black Bears in his first professional season.
Grant Ford, Cameron Junker, and Noe Toribio completed the shutout for Altoona, with Ford and Junker each tossing an inning and Toribio earning his third save of the season with two innings and no hits allowed.
Mason Martin paved the way for the Curve offense once again in the victory, hitting his 14th home run of the season and finishing with two RBIs. It was the third-straight game with a home run for Martin, who added an RBI single in the sixth inning after his fourth inning solo shot.
The Senators finished the game with three hits, two of which came from Jacob Young. Harrisburg's best shot at offense came in the eighth inning, after Robert Hassell III was walked to open the frame and Young was hit by a pitch. James Wood bounced a sharp ground ball up the middle, but Liover Peguero made a diving stop and turned two with Tsung-Che Cheng.
Saturday's game
Outfielder Chavez Young made a brilliant diving catch in the first inning and threw out the tying run at the plate in the eighth inning to aid Altoona to a 4-2 win over Harrisburg on Saturday night at FNB Field.
The Curve got on the board with a pair of powerful displays from the middle of the order in the fourth inning. Matt Gorski swatted his 10th homer of the season with one out in the fourth and after a strikeout from Abrahan Gutierrez struck out, Martin demolished the first pitch from Michael Cuevas over the right field videoboard to give the Curve a 2-0 lead. Altoona added another run later in the inning when Dylan Shockley was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Anthony Solometo tossed five scoreless innings for the Curve in his third start at Double-A. Allowing just one hit and one walk on 80 pitches, Solometo struck out five and extended his scoreless streak to 11 consecutive innings. The longest consecutive scoreless inning streak for a Curve pitcher this season is 14.1 innings, set by Sean Sullivan in April.
Harrisburg mounted an eighth inning rally against Altoona taking advantage of four consecutive walks from Tahnaj Thomas to start the inning. Lefty Tyler Samaniego entered and allowed a line drive single to center field to plate the second run for the Senators, but Chavez Young cut down the tying run at the plate with a terrific throw from center. Samaniego retired the next two hitters to hold the 3-2 lead for Altoona and then pick up two more strikeouts in the ninth inning to finish off his fifth save of the season.
The Curve got a key insurance run from Shockley in the ninth inning when he drove in Andres Alvarez with two outs with a solid single to center field.
Altoona concludes a six-game road trip with the Harrisburg Senators, Double-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, today at 1 p.m. Altoona will send RHP Braxton Ashcraft to the mound to face LHP Alemao Hernandez for the Senators.