The Altoona Curve scored four runs in the eighth inning to take down the Richmond Flying Squirrels, 7-2, and earn a series split in front of 4,027 fans Sunday afternoon at PNG Field.

Richmond scored two runs in the first inning, thanks to a single by center fielder Bo Davidson that scored right fielder Jonah Cox and first baseman Sabin Ceballos, who came around on a throwing error by Curve right fielder Jesus Castillo.

From there, it was all Altoona, who dominated the Flying Squirrels on the mound and at the plate.

The pitching staff yielded only three hits over the remaining eight innings of play led by starter Connor Wietgrefe, who went four innings and allowed four hits and two runs.

Alessandro Ercolani, fresh off the Injured List, threw a shutout inning, while Jarod Bayless and Enmanual Chapman each threw two shutout innings to slam the door on the Flying Squirrels.

“Wietgrefe, after the first inning, he was great,” Curve manager Andy Fox said. “He was on a short outing for him, but the bullpen stepped up big. We were kind of a little limited in the bullpen, but Bayless and Chapman stepped up huge.”

Offensively, shortstop Jack Brannigan got the Curve on the board in the first inning with a solo home run to make it 2-1. Altoona took the lead on a two-run home run by second baseman Keiner Delgado and never looked back.

“The big part was actually us answering back, being able to cut the lead in half thanks to Brannigan,” Fox said.

The Curve added four runs of insurance in the eighth inning with a trio of singles to start the inning, finished off by an RBI single by first baseman Callan Moss to move the game to 4-2.

Back-to-back walks worked in Altoona’s favor as Omar Alfonso scored on Will Taylor’s walk to make it a 5-2 game.

Derek Berg knocked in a run to make it 6-2 on a line-drive single before Lonnie White Jr. grounded into a double play to score Duce Gourson and round out the scoring for the Curve.

The win marked the second series in a row where Altoona has won three games and comes after the Curve started the season on an 0-12 skid.

Solo Jack(s)

With Brannigan’s first-inning home run, it marked the 17th solo home run of the season for the Curve.

Our bats have gotten better, but not being able to get the big hit is kind of been our thing lately,” Fox said. “Even the whole series we had traffic and couldn’t cash in and but for me, I’ll take 17 solos over none.”

It marked Brannigan’s third home run of the season, all of which came in this series.

Puttin’ on the hits

The offenses for both teams were put on display throughout the series. Altoona notched 51 hits in six games while Richmond added 64 of its own.

“Being committed to their approach and trust in their processes and their work and things like that, that’s been the biggest part,” Fox said. “We’re actually starting to see little incremental improvements in all of them. And yeah, guys are scuffling, but for the most part, collectively as a group, we’ve had a really good and consistent approach every day.”

The Flying Squirrels accrued 51 runs against the Curve while they scored 30 runs themselves in the series split.

The Curve lost Saturday’s game, 7-2.

UP NEXT

The Curve head to Chesapeake to take on the Baysox for a six-game series on Tuesday.