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Curve win home opener

By rscaife
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Updated: April 6, 2018

Courtesy of Altoona Curve

CURVE, Pa. – Logan Hill drove a three-run homer to cap a six-run eighth inning as the Altoona Curve came from behind to beat the Akron RubberDucks, 6-5, on Thursday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field to open the 2018 season.

The Curve (1-0) rallied to overcome a three-run deficit to the RubberDucks (0-1) entering the eighth.

With one out in the eighth, Cole Tucker broke the shutout with a two-run double. Stephen Alemais followed with an RBI single to even the score at 3-3.

After Akron’s Argenis Angulo (Loss, 0-1) issued a walk to Will Craig, Hill drove his go-ahead, three-run homer to the left-field seats to give the Curve a 6-3 lead.

In the top of the ninth, Akron plated a pair of runs against Altoona reliever Geoff Hartlieb (Save, 1), but the right-hander worked a flyout from Tyler Kreiger to strand the potential tying run at second to end the game.

Akron broke a scoreless tie with three runs in the fifth inning. Sam Haggerty singled to plate the first run of the game, and a fielding error at first base by Craig off the bat of Dorssys Paulino brought home two runs later in the frame.

Curve starting pitcher J.T. Brubaker worked through five innings and allowed three runs (one earned) on four hits with two walks and eight strikeouts, tying the second-highest strikeout total for an Altoona Opening Day starting pitcher in franchise history.

In his Double-A debut, Curve reliever Logan Sendelbach worked two scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts. Sean Keselica (Win, 1-0) pitched a scoreless eighth.

Akron starter Shane Bieber allowed two hits over six scoreless innings and struck out nine.