Nine strikeouts from starter Khristian Curtis weren’t enough for the Altoona Curve as they fell to the Harrisburg Senators, 7-2, in front of 4,225 at PNG Field Thursday night.

Curtis hurled five innings and allowed only one earned run in the season-opening loss to the Senators. The southpaw carved up the Harrisburg lineup striking out eight different Senators.

“He was commanding the ball, basically painted where he wanted it,” Curve manager Andy Fox said. “We want everybody to get off to a good start and start building some confidence. And this was an impressive outing and a great confidence builder for him, too.”

It marked the second Double-A outing for Curtis who threw two innings for the Curve in the 2025 playoffs against Erie.

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski The Curve honored the recent passing Jim Lane and Ted Beam prior to the singing of the national anthem.

“It felt great. Just me and (Omar) Alfonso behind the plate,” Curtis said. “We were just on the same page from the get go. Just kind of had to settle the nerves a little bit. Got strike one, and then felt like from there, it was just smooth sailing.”

Curtis overpowered Harrisburg hitters with an effective fastball and stayed ahead in the count with relative ease for most of the outing.

“Fastball was really working at the top of the zone, which is something we’ve worked on all off season and spring training, and just being able to command that and repeat it,” Curtis said. “I feel like I did a good job of showing that tonight. And just overall, the consistency part, landing breaking balls and getting swings and misses whenever I need it.”

A three-run sixth inning spoiled Curtis’ phenomenal start as Anthony Solometo walked two and gave up two hits which gave the Senators a 4-2 lead.

“We’ve just got to do a better job of throwing strikes and not giving free passes,” Fox said. “We had six walks, two catcher interferences and two hit by pitch. And then they did a good job hitting with guys on base, and they got some big hits. We had some traffic. We just couldn’t get that big hit.”

The Curve offense left nine runners on base while scoring just two runs on six hits. Despite the loss, Curtis was thrilled just to be back on the field and on the mound.

“I felt great just getting out there and get back on the mound again and pitching in front of some fans,” Curtis said.

Running rampant

The Curve stole four bases Thursday night , including three by second baseman Keiner Delgado and another by center fielder Mitch Jebb.

“We want to be aggressive and push the envelope and try to create runs,” Fox said. “That’s our biggest thing, the more pressure we can put on defense, create some mistakes and get guys in scoring position, and hopefully we can get the hits when we need them.”

Up next

The Curve will send southpaw Connor Wietgrefe to the mound for the second game of the season tonight. Wietgrefe was 6-4 with a 3.10 ERA across three different levels last season including a 1.80 ERA in Altoona.