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Altoona's Callan Moss scored twice to pace the Curve in a 3-0 victory over the Akron RubberDucks Tuesday night in front of 3,577 fans at PNG Field.
Moss ended up with a triple, a walk and two stolen bases, too.
"I love the energy, and the guys came ready to work after a day off, and we finished up strong in Harrisburg," Curve manager Andy Fox said. "We've got to finish strong regardless of what the record is."
Prior to the fourth inning, the Curve had been getting runners on, but in each of the first three innings, they hit into a double play.
"A couple were ones you couldn't do," Fox said. "Another one, maybe we got to do a better job of reading the low line drive to the left side of the infield."
Moss scored on a single by Ivan Brethowr in the fourth inning. Brethowr stepped to the plate after Lonnie White, Jr. was hit by a pitch to load the bases and his single scored both Moss and Murf Gray.
"Moss has continued to work and continue to get better," Fox said. "I mean, he's played the most games on our team, but he keeps himself in great shape, and he's done a really nice job."
Moss' triple to start the sixth inning got the ball rolling for the Altoona offense as White came through with an RBI single to give the Curve a 3-0 lead.
"I want to make an impact as much as I can," Moss said. "(Bench coach) Gary Green always talks about you making a place on defense when you know the bats aren't going to go every time, right? The bat's not always going to be there, but the little things you can always do. So whether you know stealing a bag or you know making a good read on the bases, playing good defense, those things that kind of keep you there. And I take pride in doing that every day."
The triple for Moss marked only his second of the season, both coming in the last month which has also coincided with his home run numbers climbing as he's hit five of his ten home runs since August 1st.
"Just being aggressive and getting pitches to hit," Moss said. "Kind of just staying through the process. Obviously, not the year that I wanted to have, but trying to make the most of it as I can."
It wasn't just Moss who made an impact for Altoona as eight different Curve hitters notched hits and everybody in the Curve lineup reached base at least once against Akron.
"It keeps pressure on the defense," Fox said. "Everyone's passing baton and the more guys you have on base, the better chance you have of scoring runs."
Hurling a gem
Three Curve pitchers combined for a shutout of the RubberDucks.
Starter Connor Oliver put together five strong innings and allowed only three hits, two walks and had four strikeouts.
Landon Tomkins took over in the sixth and picked up right where Oliver left off. He struck out four in two innings and allowed only one hit.
Michael Walsh earned his fourth save of the season after he struck out three Akron hitters over two innings of action.
"It's huge, especially at the beginning of the week, knowing we have a doubleheader in a couple days to kind of save our bullpen," Fox said. "You can only have so many guys, so I think that was the big part. Getting Oliver through five was huge."
Up next
RHP Dominic Pipkin will take the mound for the Curve tonight. Pipkin threw three innings and allowed two runs against Harrisburg last week.