Pitchers hold Cats to one hit
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Wrapping up their two-week road trip, Curve pitchers Connor Wietgrefe, Alessandro Ercolani and Derek Diamond combined for a one-hit shutout of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats in a 4-0 win on Sunday afternoon.
Wietgrefe retired 13 straight hitters to start the game before New Hampshire’s Jay Harry dropped a double into left-center just out of the reach of a diving PJ Hilson. Wietgrefe retired the next two hitters quickly and finished his second five-inning outing of the week with six strikeouts.
Ercolani followed with two dominant innings of relief on just 20 pitches to bridge the gap to Diamond, who finished the victory by retiring all six hitters he faced with a pair of strikeouts.
Curve pitchers combined to set down the final 14 hitters in a row.
The Curve jumped on New Hampshire starter Gage Stanifer in the top of the first inning. Titus Dumitru smashed a two-run homer to center — his ninth homer of the year.
Omar Alfonzo added a solo shot in the fourth inning to make it a 3-0 game.
The Curve added an insurance run in the fifth inning when Derek Berg came across to score on a groundout.
On Saturday, the Fisher Cats rallied from a 7-3 deficit and earned a 9-8 win over the Curve in 11 innings.
Altoona returns to Peoples Natural Gas Field on Tuesday to begin a six-game series with the Chesapeake Baysox at 6:30 p.m.




