MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com-NORWICH, CT-The Connect Defenders let one slip by Saturday night at Dodd Stadium in front of a crowd of 5,101 as the fell 4-3 to Altoona. The series is now evened up at one game a piece.

Altoona scored three runs in the sixth inning and held off the late surges by the Defenders to set up a rubber match in tomorrow’s series finale.

The Curve used a pair of doubles by LF-Jason Delaney and 3B-Hector Gimenez in the second inning to take an early lead.
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Connecticut responded with a leadoff triple by LF-Antoan Richardson in the third followed by a C-Jackson Williams RBI groundout to tie things up at one.

In the sixth, RF-Jonel Pacheco singled to leadoff and Delaney drew a walk, driving Defender’s starter, LHP-Madison Bumgarner packing. Reliever, RHP-Geivy Garcia took over the reins but just did not have it. Garcia struggled, allowing two hits, one walk and a wild pitch, which allowed three Curve runs to score.

Trailing 4-1, the Defenders cut the lead in half in the home half of the sixth as 2B-Brock Bond singled, than advanced to third on two consecutive wild pitches. 3B-Brad Boyer drove him in with an RBI single to right-center.

SS-Brandon Crawford singled then stole second to start the seventh inning off and scored on a Richardson RBI single to trim the lead to one but that would be all as Connecticut would squander opportunities in the eighth and ninth. Richardson finished 3 for 4 on the night to lead the offense.

Madison Bumgarner (4-1) suffered his first double-A loss of the season allowing three earned runs off of six hits, walked a pair and struck out three in five innings of work. Curve starter, RHP-Yoslan Herrera (4-0) remained undefeated tossing five innings of two hit ball, allowed one earned run and fanned three. Scott Nestor collected his third save of the season for Altoona.

Tomorrow’s series finale has Defenders RHP-Daryl Maday (2-2) facing off against, the Curve’s RHP-Mike Crotta (3-3) in the rubber match. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05pm.

Box Score

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