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Youth is served: Altoona Curve youngsters prepping for Game 2 of Eastern League playoffs

Eastern League Baseball Divisional Playoffs

By Andy Stine 3 min read

Altoona Curve pitcher Antwone Kelly had his first playoff experience on Tuesday night in Game 1 of the Eastern League Southwest Division series, an 11-5 victory over the Erie SeaWolves. The game was spent preparing for Game 2 for Kelly, who will be the starting pitcher for the Curve in tonight's game.

"It was just us having fun, seeing the guys have fun," Kelly said. "There's a lot of emotions and we're just trying to control them when we're playing a pretty good team. I'm excited."

Kelly, who turned 22 at the beginning of the month, is in his fifth season in professional baseball, all of them in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. The Pirates signed him as a free agent in 2021, and he spent a couple years in the low-level development leagues before finally being promoted to Low-A Bradenton in the middle of the 2023 season.

He pitched well enough in High-A Greensboro at the beginning of the season to be called up to Altoona in June. With the Curve, Kelly has started 11 games and is 2-2 with an earned run average of 3.00 in 48 innings of work.

"It's an honor that they give me a chance to start a playoff game," Kelly said. "This has been one of my best seasons yet. I've been consistent. It's just about staying that way for this one."

The Curve put together one of its biggest rallies of the season on Tuesday to get off to a 1-0 series lead against Erie. It did not look good for much of it with a lot of bad luck leading to Altoona trailing 4-1 after 5 ½ innings, but the Curve bats came alive for seven runs in the bottom of the sixth and three more in the seventh to take the Game 1 victory.

"We were doing what we've been doing all year and putting the ball in play," Curve shortstop Konnor Griffin said.

Griffin, the No. 1 prospect in all of Minor League Baseball according to MLB.com, went 3-for-4 with a double on Tuesday to lead the Curve. Esmerlyn Valdez also had three hits and drove in five runs on the night, including a line-drive opposite field solo homer in the second inning.

Termarr Johnson added two hits and scored two runs. He also picked up a big hit in the sixth-inning rally as he got a hustling double on what looked to be just a routine base hit to center field.

"It was definitely an adrenaline rush, that's for sure," Johnson said of the sixth inning. "A lot of guys came together that inning. We had some good at-bats. We left guys on early. We just knew it was going to pop.

"Really good to get that momentum back and get this first win back at home and go in with some momentum to Erie."

The Curve bullpen got six innings of solid work from Landon Tomkins, Michael Walsh, and Tyler Samaniego. The trio covered six innings and gave up just one run after starter Wilber Dotel went three.

Erie will send left-handed pitcher Andrew Sears to the mound in Game 2 tonight. Sears, who was just promoted to Erie at the beginning of August, is 8-6 with a 3.49 earned run average this season between high-A West Michigan and Erie.

First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. from Erie.

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