Curve Open Homestand with 4th Straight Win

CURVE, Pa. - The Curve kept on rolling at home on Thursday night, opening up the homestand with a 2-1 victory over the Richmond Flying Squirrels in front of 5,320 at Peoples Natural Gas Field.  It's the fourth straight victory for the Curve, who now sit one win away from 1,000 regular-season victories in franchise history at 999.

Richmond actually scored first in the game off Curve starter Tyler Waldron in the first inning but that was the only run that the Curve starter permitted on Thursday night.  Waldron went on to finish 5.2 innings and gave up just one run on five hits while striking out four in his fourth Double-A start.

Altoona jumped on the board off Chris Heston (9-6) in the fifth, ending a scoreless innings streak for Heston at 20.1 IP.  Quincy Latimore led off the inning with a walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Waldron with one out.  After Gustavo Nunez flew out, Ramon Cabrera came up with the big two-out double to bring Latimore in and tie the game at one.

The Curve took the lead an inning later off Heston, who finished six innings.  Matt Curry led off the inning with a double to right before Oscar Tejeda singled to left to place runners at the corners.  Stefan Welch came to the dish and rolled a grounder on the infield that was deep enough to get Curry in from third and place the Curve in front, 2-1.

That ended the scoring on the day as the Curve bullpen duo of Mike Colla and Vic Black combined for 3.1 innings of scoreless relief.  Colla (5-6) threw 2.1 innings of scoreless relief while striking out one.  Black pitched the ninth and struck out two to earn his ninth save.

Cabrera finished the day 1-for-3 with his double and an intentional walk to run his season-best hitting streak to nine games.  Latimore reached base four times on Thursday night, walking twice in addition to his single and double.