Curve need extra innings in game 2 for the sweep

EL baseball

Outfielders Lonnie White Jr. and Will Taylor are highly-touted baseball prospects who both could have had promising careers in football.

Smith was recruited by Penn State for football and Taylor played both football and baseball collegiately at Clemson.

The Pittsburgh Pirates organization, and the Altoona Curve, are no doubt thankful that Smith and Taylor chose baseball as their long-term career pursuit.

Both hit huge home runs Thursday night to lead the Curve to a 6-3, 5-4 doubleheader victory over the Akron Aeros before an announced crowd of 3,000 fans at Peoples Natural Gas Field.

Taylor unloaded a three-run homer to highlight a six-run rally in the bottom of the sixth inning and lead the Curve to a 6-3 win in the first game, and White drilled a solo homer down the left field line in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a 4-4 tie and give the Curve a doubleheader sweep with a 5-4 win in the nightcap.

The Curve battled from behind to win both games, which were both slated for seven innings, and made it four straight wins in this week's season-ending series with Akron, with three games remaining tonight, Saturday and Sunday.

White smashed his solo game-winner off Akron reliever Cam Schuelke with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning for the Curve, which overcame an early 4-1 deficit.

"Honestly, I don't know what I hit - whether it was a fast ball or a slider,'' White said."I saw it in the zone, I was aggressive, and I jumped on it.''

White said that although he was a star football player, he grew up around the game of baseball.

"Either sport would have been good for me, but I'm glad that I chose baseball,'' White said. "Growing up, I always played baseball, even wiffle ball in the backyard.''

Taylor hit a three-run homer to the deep leftfield bleachers off Akron reliever Jay Driver after left fielder Titus Dimitru had reached Driver for a two-run single in the Curve's big six-run sixth inning that wiped out a 3-0 Altoona deficit in the first game.

"In a seven-inning game, we were just hoping for a go-ahead hit there, especially with two outs,'' Curve manager Andy Fox said. "But he ends up hitting a three-run homer there, which was obviously one of the bigger hits of the year for us.''

Fox said that both White and Taylor bring a great work ethic to the game of baseball.

"Both of those kids are good kids, and they both work hard as they're learning and going up the steps toward being big leaguers,'' Fox said. "It's always good to see players like that succeed, because they do put a lot of work into the game.

Both Altoona and Akron will miss the Eastern League playoffs this year, but there is a lot of pride in the Curve locker room.

"I know our record is our record but it's just a credit to these guys that they've been battling all year,'' Fox said. "They've just never given up, and it showed today.''

Game notes:

Altoona now leads the season series with Akron, 11-10 ... Akron outfielder Jaison Churio is the younger brother of Milwaukee Brewers' star Jackson Churio ... The Curve have now hit 139 home runs this season, just four short of the all-time franchise single-season record.

Next stop

Tonight: Akron at Altoona, 6 p.m.

Pitchers: Akron LHP Rafe Schlesinger vs. Altoona RHP Matt Ager