ALTOONA, Penn. – Kevin Smith’s late home run proved pivotal on Friday night as the New Hampshire Fisher Cats earned a 5-4 victory against the Altoona Curve.
The lead see-sawed between both teams early. Forrest Wall crossed the plate first for New Hampshire in the first, with Hunter Owen’s solo homer tying things up in the second.
Nash Knight brought Wall home a second time with an RBI single in the third, as RBI base-hits from Smith and Wall increased New Hampshire’s lead to three by the end of the fourth. Altoona managed to get three more runs of their own by the end of the fifth, beginning with Jason Delay’s two-run single followed by an RBI single from Jerrick Suiter.
A 1-0 pitch by Altoona reliver Joel Cesar down the middle of the plate broke the deadlock once and for all, with Smith transforming it into his sixth home run of the year.
Ty Tice grabbed the final two outs of the contest for his third save of the year, with Tyler Saucedo in line for the win for his work in the eighth and ninth. Cesar got the loss, falling to 0-1 on the year.
Wall and Smith each collected three hits in the victory, with Knight joining Riley Adams and Christian Williams with a pair of hits on the evening. Adams now has hits in ten straight games, with multiple hits in five of those games.
The series continues Saturday night. RHP Hector Perez (4-2, 5.44 ERA) will go for the ‘Cats while LHP Sean Brady (2-2, 4.81 ERA) gets the ball for Altoona.
