Baseball 101

Altoona Curve starter Hunter Barco continued his brilliant start to begin the season, and got plenty of run support as well, in a 10-1 win for the Curve over the Somerset Patriots on Wednesday afternoon at Peoples Natural Gas Field.

Barco permitted just one walk and one hit in his longest start of the campaign at five innings. He allowed only two runners to reach base on him in his five innings, a bunt single from Somerset’s Alexander Vargas and a walk to Spencer Jones in the first inning.

He had three innings where he retired the side in order, including his last two innings of work. Barco has thrown 13 consecutive scoreless innings to begin his season.

Altoona’s (4-7) offense pounded out 14 hits and drew 11 walks, led by multi-hit games from Mitch Jebb, Sammy Siani, Jack Brannigan and Nick Cimillo.

Brannigan and Bowen each homered in a five-run third inning against Somerset (5-6) starter Bailey Dees.

Brannigan doubled in the fourth, singled in a run in the fifth, walked in the seventh and was hit by a pitch in the eighth. All told, the Curve’s shortstop went 3-for-4 with four RBI.

Altoona added two more runs in the fifth inning against the Somerset bullpen with Brannigan’s run-scoring single and Cimillo’s sacrifice fly to give the Curve an 8-0 lead at the time.

Every Curve batter recorded a hit in the victory, eight of the nine hitters reached base at least twice. Termarr Johnson picked up a hit and drew two walks out of the leadoff spot.

On the mound, after Barco’s strong outing wrapped up, Valentin Linarez set down all six hitters he faced with two strikeouts in two scoreless innings of relief. Cy Nielson finished the game off with four strikeouts in two innings of relief, permitting Somerset’s lone run in the ninth on an RBI double from Cole Gabrielson.

The Curve’s 11 walks drawn were the most by the team since May 25, 2018 against Harrisburg when they drew 12 free passes in the game.