Robinson Fires Six Strong in 5-1 Win

Duce Gourson slammed his seventh homer of the season in his first at-bat on Saturday night.

1:41 AM UTC

CURVE, PA. – The Curve took the upper-hand in their weeklong series with the Richmond Flying Squirrels with a 5-1 win in front of 6,606 fans on Saturday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field. It was the largest crowd of the season at PNG Field.

Starter Kyle Robinson fired six solid innings, scattering seven hits and three walks, and earned his first win with the Curve. Robinson struck out six and worked around at least one baserunner in 5-of-6 innings on the mound. Robinson became the fourth Curve starter to throw 6.0 innings this week, Altoona pitchers this week rank 3rd in the Eastern League with a 3.60 ERA.

Duce Gourson slammed a two-run homer on the first pitch he saw from Richmond starter Tyler Switalski to give the Curve a first inning lead. 8-of-9 hitters in the Curve order picked up at least one hit, evenly spreading out the 11-hit attack.

In the second inning, Titus Dumitru picked up his second double in as many at-bats and drove in a pair to push the Curve to a 4-0 lead. Altoona added another run in the third on an RBI single from Shalin Polanco; the first of two hits for him in the game.

Ryan McCarty added two hits and each member of the lineup reached base safely in the win.

On the mound, Cy Nielson fired two dominant innings of relief, picking up a pair of strikeouts, to cover the seventh and eighth innings for Altoona. Emmanuel Chapman stranded the bases loaded to wrap up the victory by getting Parks Harber to ground out to third and end the game.

With the five runs scored, Curve fans can get 50% a regular menu price pizza on Saturday at Papa John’s by using the promo code CURVE50.

Altoona continues the series with the Flying Squirrels on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. Altoona will send RHP Kyle Robinson to the mound against Richmond starter LHP Tyler Switalski.

For tickets and more information on the Altoona Curve, visit AltoonaCurve.com, call 877.99.CURVE or stop by the PNG Field box office. Additionally, the Stockyard Team Store is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., during every home game and online 24/7/365.