Altoona Curve drop below .500 mark in loss

ERIE — Altoona dropped its second extra-inning game of the season, falling 6-4 to the Erie SeaWolves on Wednesday afternoon in Eastern League baseball action at UPMC Park.
Termarr Johnson got Altoona’s scoring started with a solo homer to lead off the fourth inning against lefty Carlos Pena. Johnson’s fourth home run of the season made it 2-1 at the time, and after Erie added another run in the bottom of the fourth, the Curve knocked Pena from the game after back-to-back doubles from Nick Cimillo and Mitch Jebb.
The Curve (14-15) loaded the bases after a pair of walks, but left the bases loaded in the fifth as Mike Jarvis struck out to end the frame.
The Curve drew even in the sixth inning when Sammy Siani walked and then advanced on a pair of wild pitches to third base. Jack Brannigan singled home Siani with a hard grounder back toward the middle of the infield.
With the game tied at three, the Altoona bullpen combined to sit down 13 consecutive batters at one point after starter Po-Yu Chen tossed 4• innings of three-run ball.
The bullpen thendid its job as Jaden Woods, Wilkin Ramos and Cam Sanders combined for 5ª scoreless innings to send the game into the 11th inning where Justin Meis quickly dispatched the side, stranding the placed runner at third.
In the 12th inning, Altoona finally got a run home on a sacrifice fly from Jarvis, however, in the bottom half of the inning, his younger brother, Jim Jarvis, lifted a game-tying sacrifice fly and after an infield single with two outs, Jake Holton slammed a walk-off two-run homer to end the game.
Jebb picked up two hits in the win giving him a team-best 14-game on-base streak this season.
Both teams left 11 runners on base in a game that featured 16 combined hits and nine base on balls, six of which came courtesy of the Curve.
The Curve and SeaWolves are back at it tonight at 6 p.m.