Fisher Cats can’t handle Curve

Owen’s moment came with a runner on first and no outs in the bottom of the ninth. Logan Hill had singled to start the inning, which set up the league-best twelfth blast from the Curve outfielder.

New Hampshire had been held scoreless until the seventh, when they overcame a 2-0 deficit to lead 3-2. Christian Williams and Kevin Smith started the inning with consecutive walks but back-to-back outs followed. Up steppedForrest Wall with a 12-game hitting streak on the line; the Orlando, FL native rapped a single to left to extend his streak to a season-high 13 games and put the go-ahead run on base.

Santiago Espinal followed with a ground ball to the right side that made the outfield grass but was knocked down by the second baseman Alfredo Reyes. Reyes got up, located the ball and realized the tying run was headed towards home. His throw to the plate went wide, rolled to the backstop and allowed Wall to scamper to the plate to give the ‘Cats a 3-2 advantage.

An unearned run in the first gave Altoona the early lead and a two-out single by Owen in the sixth had made it 2-0 Curve.

Notable

• Forrest Wall’s 13game hitting streak is the longest active stretch in the Eastern League.
• Riley Adams singled in the sixth to extend his hitting streak to a personalbest 11 games.
• Nash Knight has now hit in nine straight after he doubled in the first.
• Hector Perez turned in a quality start with six innings in which he allowed two runs (one earned) on four hits, walked two and struck out five.

The series concludes Sunday afternoon at Peoples Natural Gas Field. RHP Patrick Murphy (3-5, 3.99 ERA) gets the ball for New Hampshire while RHP Domingo Robles (0-0, 3.60 ERA) will go for Altoona. Coverage begins with the Fisher Cats Pregame Show at 1:45 p.m. and continues with first pitch at 2:00 p.m. on the WGIR Fisher Cats Radio Network.