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The Altoona Curve outlasted the Erie SeaWolves with a 6-5 win in front of 3,372 fans at PNG Field Friday night.
It was a back-and-forth battle that saw the Curve trail by three after a three-run third inning by the SeaWolves. Altoona got two runs back in the fourth and then took the lead in the fifth inning.
Erie scored two in the seventh before Altoona came back in the home half of the inning to score two runs to take the lead.
"It's a good confidence boost to go down and then come back, go down again and then come back," Curve manager Robby Hammock said. "It was stuff that we weren't able to do early in the season."
The Curve got an RBI triple from Sammy Siani to score Carter Bins in the fourth to get on the scoreboard. Yoyner Fajardo plated Siani with a sacrifice fly to get Altoona within one.
In the fifth, Kervin Pichardo led things off with a double and came around to score on Tsung-Che Cheng's single. Cheng stole second and then scored on a double by Joe Perez.
Altoona's Sean Sullivan gave up two runs in relief of starter Anthony Solometo, and those both came in the seventh inning, but the offense had Sullivan's back and scored two runs in its half of the seventh to retake the lead.
Seth Beer's two-run double that fell between a trio of Erie players plated Pichardo and Cheng much to the delight of Sullivan.
"It's big. I know that my teammates have my back no matter what," Sullivan said. "No matter the situation, they're gonna keep grinding and try and get runs because we're all trying to work together to win the game."
The win marked the second in a row for the Curve, and mirrors last week's series when Altoona lost the first two games of the series before rattling off four wins in a row.
"There's a lot more belief and it's starting to become apparent up and down the lineup with each guy," Hammock said. "Even in the dugout you know you can tell there's a lot more belief right now."
That belief can be seen throughout the clubhouse and is a welcome sight for a team in dire need of continued success.
"Once we win a few in a row then we start feeling good," Sullivan said. "Clubhouse vibes are really good so I think it was a really good win today. And we just got to keep that whole the whole vibe going."
3s a crowd
Solometo started Friday's contest and gave up three runs in his third and final inning.
Solometo struck out three and allowed three hits all of which came in the third.
Sullivan relieved Solometo in the top of the fourth and threw the final six innings. The lone dark spot for Sullivan was the top of the seventh which saw him give up two runs on three hits.
"He pitches and knows how to keep guys off balance and get out," Hammock said.
Sullivan allowed seven hits, one walk and struck out four.
"My whole mentality this entire season has been to close out each inning as if it's the end of the game," Sullivan said. "And for the most part that's worked out pretty well so that's kind of just what I thought today."
Stacking wins
With Friday's win, it marked only the second time this season where Altoona has won back-to-back games at home.
The first and only time was during the first series when the Curve won the first two games of the opening homestand.
"That's a win whatever way it was. We found ways to win both days," Hammock said. "Finding ways to win. No matter what happened, if we only scored two runs, we held them to zero. We gave up five, we were able to score six so it was good. It was good to be able to find ways to win, we just need to continue that."
Ouch!
Irony was firmly at play with Erie donning its Copa de la Diversion jerseys much like the Curve did as the SeaWolves went by the Pinatas.
It should serve as no surprise then that there were two bean balls by Solometo who hit Erie's Carlos Mendoza twice. While no candy fell out of Mendoza, the SeaWolves also hit two Curve hitters with Cheng and Pichardo both taking one for the team.
Pichardo came around to score and tied the game at five after Beer singled him home.