Workman Walks Off Altoona After Alfonzo Forces Extras

The SeaWolves (54-37) forced extra innings and walked off Altoona (39-54) in the 10th inning, 5-4. Erie has now won five games in a row and Altoona has lost six straight.

Altoona scored quickly in the first inning. Tsung-Che Cheng began the game by hitting a soft ground ball to Erie’s starter Wilkel Hernandez. Hernandez threw the ball into right field for an error, allowing Cheng to race to third base. Sammy Siani followed with a sacrifice fly to give Altoona a 1-0 lead on an unearned run.

Erie got even against Altoona starter Po-Yu Chen in the second. A pitch hit Jake Holton to begin the inning. Chris Meyers singled him to third. Eliezer Alfonzo then struck an RBI single to make it a 1-1 tie.

In the fourth inning, the Curve took the lead. Abrahan Gutierrez, Nick Cimillo, and Tres Gonzalez hit three consecutive singles to begin the inning and load the bases with none out. With one out, Brenden Dixon lined an RBI single to give Altoona a 2-1 advantage. Hernandez escaped the inning without allowing another run.

Hernandez labored through his five innings. He allowed two runs, one earned, on seven hits. He tied a season-high with eight strikeouts and did not walk a batter. Hernandez set a new career-high by throwing 102 pitches.

Altoona tacked on a run against Joel Peguero in the seventh. Jase Bowen drove a double and scored on Jackson Glenn’s two-out RBI single, making it 3-1.

Erie could not score again against Chen, who threw seven strong innings. In the ninth inning, Gage Workman singled against Luis Peralta and then stole second base. The stolen base tied Workman with Jamie Johnson for the most stolen bases in SeaWolves history with 63 for his Erie career.

With Workman on third and two out, Alfonzo clobbered a game-tying, two-run homer to square the game at 3-3 and force a 10th inning.

In the 10th, Tim Naughton surrendered the go-ahead run when Charles McAdoo plated the free runner on a groundout.

In the bottom of the 10th, Erie loaded the bases with one out after a pitch hit Carlos Mendoza, and Hao-Yu Lee walked, which forced the free runner, Ben Malgeri to third. Workman then singled to center to score Malgeri and Mendoza, giving Erie its first walk-off win since April 26.

Naughton (5-0) earned the win. Yean (5-4) took the loss.

Jackson Jobe squares off against Thomas Harrington on Friday at 6:35 p.m.