ALTOONA, Penn. – After Kevin Smith’s late heroics on Friday night, the Altoona Curve returned the favor, earning a 4-3 walk-off victory against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats on Saturday night.
Altoona scored in the first off Logan Hill’s triple, bringing Jared Oliva around to score, and they added another run in the sixth with Hunter Owen’s RBI single.
The Fisher Cats bounced back in the seventh with a grounder by Santiago Espinal that turned into three runs thanks to a throwing error by Altoona second baseman Alfredo Reyes.
That lead held until Owen took a 1-0 pitch deep in the ninth, bringing himself and Hill home for the game’s final result.
Vinny Nitolli (0-1), earned the loss along with the blown save for allowing Owen’s homer, the win went to Angel German (2-1) for his three straight strikeouts of Fisher Cat batters in the top of the ninth.
Fisher Cat starting pitcher Hector Perez went six innings, with just one of the two runs occurring on his watch earned. Perez allowed just four hits and two walks, striking out five Altoona batters.
Altoona starting pitcher Sean Brady managed just two Ks, scattering five hits and three walks over 6 1/3 innings of work, allowing two of New Hampshire’s three runs.
Neither team managed much at the plate, with Owen and Hill combining for all of Altoona’s hits.
Espinal was the only Fisher Cat with more than one hit, with Nash Knight also contributing a double in the loss.
The series concludes on Sunday with a 2 p.m. contest putting New Hampshire’s Patrick Murphy (3-5, 3.99 ERA) against Altoona lefthander Domingo Robles (0-0, 3.60 ERA)
