ALTOONA, Penn. – The New Hampshire Fisher Cats climbed to 7-3 on the year after a 4-3 extra-innings victory on Wednesday against the Altoona Curve.
All three of Altoona’s runs came in the first two innings as Jack Suwinski hit his second homer of the year with no one on base in the first and Will Matthiessen hit another homer in the second, this bringing Tucupita Marcano across the plate.
New Hampshire proved it could go deep as well, with Spencer Horwitz sending a first pitch offering over the left field fence in the third, bringing Orelvis Martinez home with him to narrow the Curve’s lead down to one.
The Fisher Cats couldn’t find a game-tying run until the seventh when a Steward Berroa’s single and subsequent steal of second base put him into position to come home once Zac Cook sent a grounder into right field.
Both teams remained level through nine innings, with Cook providing the deciding run in the top of the tenth, beginning the inning and second and advancing to third on a passed ball before a simple groundout by Horwitz was enough to bring him across the plate.
Jake Elliott got his first win of the year for the ‘Cats retiring the side in order in the ninth and tenth, with five of those six outs coming by way of strikeout as New Hampshire pitchers combined for 14 strikeouts on the evening.
New Hampshire’s batters were whiffing away as well, striking out a combined 16 times, with Horwitz’ homer providing the only extra-base hit for the Fisher Cats in the contest. Berroa led the way at the plate with a 2-for-3 day, also adding a walk.
With the loss, Altoona falls to 3-7 on the season.
The two teams will return for a doubleheader on Thursday, with New Hampshire’s Joey Murray (1-0, 6.00 ERA) taking on Altoona’s Carmen Mlodzinski (0-1, 8.22 ERA) in the first game, which is set to start at 4:30 p.m. New Hampshire sends out Nick Fraze (1-0, 0.00 ERA) in Game 2 against Mike Burrows. Burrows will be making his first Double-A start of the year.
