MANCHESTER, N.H. – The New Hampshire Fisher Cats avoided a sweep in perhaps the most thrilling possible fashion.
On Thursday night, New Hampshire salvaged one win from their series with the Altoona Curve, with a Cavan Biggio walk-off home run making the difference in a 7-6 victory, their seventh walk-off win of the year.
Early struggles preceded those heroics, as Altoona put three runs on the board thanks to Tyler Gaffney’s second inning homer, his third home run of the year.
Altoona would make it 4-0 going into the middle of the third, but Biggio’s first home run of the evening winnowed that lead down to two runs.
The Curve made it 5-2 an inning later but wasted a golden opportunity to expand the lead even wider, leaving a pair of men in scoring position.
Both teams traded runs in the sixth and seventh, with New Hampshire finally evening up the game in the eighth to set the stage. New Hampshire Closer Travis Bergin sent the Curve down in order in the top of the ninth to preserve the tie and Biggio took a 3-0 inside pitch deep into the Manchester night.
The pair of home runs puts Biggio two homers ahead of Akron’s Bobby Bradley atop the Eastern League home run list, and the three RBI place him six behind league leader Will Craig of Altoona.
Biggio added another hit along with his two home runs and Max Pentecost also contributed a pair of RBI in the winning effort.
At the plate for Altoona, Craig and Cole Tucker each grabbed a pair of hits.
Bergen climbed to 3-1 on the year while Tate Scioneaux suffered his third blown save this season, falling to 2-3.
The Fisher Cats now head to Trenton for a Friday contest against the Thunder. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. as New Hampshire’s Tyler Saucedo (3-2, 4.69 ERA) faces off against Jordan Foley (2-4, 3.57 ERA)