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By Jarrod Prugar
For the Mirror
The Altoona Curve dialed up the perfect amount of small ball to earn a walk-off, 2-1 win over the Akron RubberDucks in 10 innings Thursday night in front of 2,844 people at PNG Field.
Ahead of the home half of the 10th inning, Curve manager Callix Crabbe made a game-altering decision to pinch run Mike Jarvis for Will Matthiessen at second base to start the frame.
"I need to ensure that the person on second base can easily score, so it kind of puts you in a weird situation, but we had to go to someone on the bench. We knew we had another first baseman on the bench, so it made a decision a little bit easier," Crabbe said.
Jarvis advanced to third base after Jackson Glenn dropped down the first of three bunts in a row by Altoona hitters. Glenn was safe at first, setting up first and third for the speedy Tsung-Che Cheng.
Cheng dropped a bunt down on his own which didn't come as too much of a surprise to Crabbe.
"We've talked about using that skill in that situation. I didn't put that on Cheng there," Crabbe said. "It was his baseball decision."
It was the speed of Jarvis and the defense of the RubberDucks that made the decision easy for Cheng.
"Glenn bunted first and when he did that, I could tell the Akron defense was pretty confused," Cheng said. "I just tried to bunt it one more time because I knew I was good at bunting and even if I was out, Jarvis would still score because of his speed."
That run tied the game, but Gorski landed the trifecta with his bunt that once again caught the RubberDucks off guard. Nobody covered first base which ultimately loaded the bases for Joe Perez.
Perez grounded into a force out at the plate that nabbed Glenn, which set the stage for a sacrifice fly for Andres Alvarez that sent the Curve home winners.
Getting it done
The Curve pitching staff dazzled throughout the game, despite allowing a run in the top half of the 10th inning.
Starter Jackson Wolf went five shutout innings and allowed a hit, a walk and struck out five. Mitchell Miliano picked up where Wolf left off, coming in in the sixth inning. He tossed two scoreless frames where he allowed one hit and struck out one.
"He just kept the ball in really tough spots for those guys to make good contact all night and that's really what pitching is," Crabbe said.
Cameron Junker struck out three in two innings of work while he yielded only one hit.
Tahnaj Thomas gave up a single to the first batter he faced in the 10th inning, which scored the runner placed on second in extra innings. Thomas induced a double play and got a groundout to finish the inning.
Big night
Matt Fraizer backed up his four-hit night on Wednesday with a two-hit night on Thursday to extend his hitting streak to nine games.
He's hitting .371 over the course of the streak while also scoring seven runs.
Next up
Southpaw Anthony Solometo goes for Altoona tonight. He's been held back due to an innings limit of late, and has not thrown more than five innings in three outings during the month of August.
Solometo has made nine appearances for Altoona, going 2-4 with a 4.42 ERA.