Altoona spent two innings erasing a four-run deficit Sunday afternoon, only to watch the tie disappear amid walks, hits and defensive mistakes in an eighth inning that decided the game.
Akron scored four times against Tyler Owens in the eighth, breaking a 6-6 tie and handing the Curve an 11-7 loss at Peoples Natural Gas Field. Luke Hill delivered the biggest blow, grounding a two-run single into center field after the RubberDucks had loaded the bases.
The inning began with a play Altoona nearly completed. Owens struck out Aaron Walton, but a throwing error by catcher Easton Carmichael allowed Walton to reach first. Welbyn Francisca followed with a single, and Owens walked Dean Curley to load the bases.
Hill sent both Walton and Francisca home. Bennett Thompson’s sacrifice fly brought in Curley, and center fielder Will Taylor committed a throwing error on the play. Jaison Chourio added another sacrifice fly to score Hill and push Akron’s advantage to 10-6.
It was a sudden reversal after the Curve had pulled themselves back into a game that appeared to be slipping away.
Altoona trailed 6-2 entering the sixth before Murf Gray and Callan Moss reached on singles. Carmichael lined a two-run double into left field, cutting the deficit in half. Taylor followed with a ground-ball single to right off Jay Driver, scoring Carmichael and bringing the Curve within a run.
Matt King singled to begin the seventh, and Altoona eventually brought him around to tie the game at 6. The comeback covered four runs over two innings and gave the Curve a fresh start entering the final two frames.
Akron needed only one inning to take it away.
Owens was charged with the loss after allowing four runs, two earned, in the eighth. He walked two and struck out two while falling to 5-3. The two Altoona errors in the inning turned what began as a tie game into a four-run deficit.
The Curve had started with the advantage. Keiner Delgado opened the bottom of the first with his 11th home run, lifting a fly ball to left-center. Gray doubled later in the inning and scored on Carmichael’s groundout, giving Altoona a 2-0 lead.
That margin lasted only until the second. Walton singled against Curve starter Connor Oliver, and Curley followed with a two-run homer to center. Jace LaViolette homered in the third to put Akron ahead, and the RubberDucks added two runs in the fourth and another on Nolan Schubart’s fifth-inning homer.
Oliver allowed three earned runs over three innings, walking one and striking out three. Dariel Francia surrendered three more over the next two innings before Jake Shirk and Sean Sullivan each worked a scoreless frame, creating the opening for Altoona’s comeback.
Carmichael drove in three runs with his eighth double and the first-inning groundout. Gray went 2-for-4 with his eighth double and scored twice, while Taylor finished 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run.
Francisca added his first home run in the ninth, sending a fly ball to right-center against Claudio Estelie. Altoona answered in the bottom half when singles by Taylor and Javier Rivas set up King’s RBI single, but Delgado grounded into a double play and Titus Dumitru struck out to end it.
The Curve finished with seven runs and 11 hits. It was enough offense to erase Akron’s early surge, but not enough to survive the eighth.