CURVE, Pa. – The Altoona Curve, playing as the Altoona Mud Turtles, got a brilliant starting pitching performance and cruised to a 4-1 win over the Chesapeake Baysox on Saturday night in front of 4,582 fans at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
Lefty Connor Wietgrefe began his outing with 4.1 hitless innings before allowing singles in the fifth and sixth inning. Wietgrefe, who matched his season-long with six innings on the mound, set a new career-high with eight strikeouts and allowed just four total baserunners in his outing. In three games this month, Wietgrefe has been dominant over 16 innings, allowing just one run and striking out 21 batters.
Altoona scratched out the game’s first run in the third inning when Duce Gourson doubled home Matt King with a shot off the center field wall. The Curve added three more runs off Chesapeake starter Evan Yates in the fifth inning to take a commanding 4-0 lead. With a runner at second and one away, Gourson again doubled home a run and trotted home easily on an RBI double from Will Taylor. Callan Moss put the final touch on the inning with a run-scoring single.
Moss picked up his 19th double of the season on Saturday night, the most by a Pirates minor leaguer this season and good for second-best among Eastern League players.
Brandon Neeck followed with two innings of solid relief, permitting an unearned run in the eighth inning, and earned two strikeouts before Emmanuel Chapman wrapped up the win with a scoreless ninth inning.
With the four runs scored, Curve fans can get 50% off a regular menu priced pizza at Papa John’s on Sunday with the promo code CURVE50.
Altoona will continue their series with Chesapeake at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday night at PNG Field. Altoona’s starter is TBD for the series finale, while the Baysox will start LHP Joesph Dzierwa.
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.