Thunder Nip Stefan Welch’s Curve For Second Straight Day
Altoona let a late lead slip away for a second straight night on Wednesday and eventually fell, 4-3, to the Trenton Thunder in 11 innings at Waterfront Park. Altoona carried a 3-1 lead into the eighth before Trenton tied it to force extras. Phil Irwin takes the tough no decision after hurling five innings of four-hit ball while allowing one unearned run.
Altoona jumped on the scoreboard first in the second inning for the second straight night, this time getting a one-out, two-run double from Jarek Cunningham to bring home Oscar Tejeda and Stefan Welch.
The two runs seemed to be enough early on for Irwin, who mowed down eight in a row from the first and into the start of the third. Trenton didn’t score its first run until the fifth when a pair of errors helped the Thunder load up the bases with no one out. With the bases full, Addison Maruszak hit a sac fly to bring Trenton within one. Irwin took care of it from there as he eventually struck out Melky Mesa to end the inning.
Stefan Welch went 2-4 yesterday with a run and a walk.
Welch is hitting .280 on the season with 16 doubles and 12 home runs.
