CURVE, Pa. – Altoona dropped a third straight game to the Akron RubberDucks, 4-2, on Thursday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
Nick Dombkowski made his third start of the season for Altoona and was dominant in the first three innings before allowing two runs on three hits and a walk in the fourth. Dombkowski nearly got out of the fourth inning unscathed when Dean Curley lifted a line drive into center field that was trapped by centerfielder Lonnie White Jr. Maick Collado added an RBI single to make it 2-0 before Altoona’s starting left-hander got out of the inning.
Altoona broke through in the fourth as they loaded the bases to set up a Javier Rivas sacrifice fly to score Titus Dumitru and make it a 2-1 game. After Akron scored a run in the top of the fifth, Callan Moss mashed his first triple of the season to right field that scored Robert Hassell III to make it a 3-2 game in the fifth. Hassell III reached three times with two walks and a double.
Cristhian Tortosa struck out four hitters over two innings of relief. Tortosa has 34 strikeouts in 19.1 innings in his time with the Curve. He’s struck out at least three batters in 9-of-12 outings for the Curve. Righty Andrew Moore tossed a scoreless seventh inning in his organizational debut.
Murf Gray’s 20-game on-base streak came to an end as he went 0-for-4. It is the first time he failed to reach successfully with the Curve.
Altoona continues their series against the Akron RubberDucks on Friday night at 6:00 p.m. Altoona will send LHP Connor Oliver to the hill while the RubberDucks will start LHP Caden Favors.
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.