’Craft work: Curve pitcher hurls 5 scoreless innings

05/08/24 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski /
Curve starter Braxton Ashcraft.

The Altoona Curve notched a 3-0 win over the Somerset Patriots Wednesday night in front of 3,236 fans at PNG Field.

It marked their first shutout of the season behind the stellar pitching of righty Braxton Ashcraft.

“I thought he did a really good job of pitching to good spots with his off speed, his breaking balls, both his slider and his curve ball,” Curve manager Robby Hammock said. “He’s got a big fastball as well and was able to locate that in spots when he would slow them down and speed them back up and vice versa and he did a tremendous job with it today.”

Ashcraft went five innings allowing only two hits while striking out five to bring his ERA to 5.33 on the season, but for him, the results of this outing go deeper than the box score.

“It feels good to go out and execute on the things you’ve been working on for a long time,” Ashcraft said. “For me personally, getting extended into games consecutively and still feeling good, that’s a huge win above all else.”

He was limited to only three innings per outing last year which can be trying on a young pitcher’s mind as he worked back from Tommy John surgery.

“When you’re rolling, you always want to pitch more,” Ashcraft said. “When you’re not throwing as well as you would like, you’d always like to find another way to contribute to the team and that’s taking away pressure from the bullpen.”

On the rubber, things were working well for Ashcraft Wednesday. He was consistently in the zone and kept Patriot hitters off-balance throughout his outing, but more importantly, he was able to finish strong.

“We probably could have sent him back out there for another inning but we were in a good spot and wanted to keep it there for him,” Hammock said. “It was still a quality start, quality innings and we wanted him to finish on a good note there.”

The heart

The heart of the order came through for the Curve when needed the most. Cleanup hitter Jackson Glenn had two hits including a double as did Jase Bowen.

Tres Gonzalez had a two hit night as well as two RBI for the Altoona offense who desperately needed clutch hitting.

“They’re a big part of the team and I know that it’s been a little slow start for them but today was really good to see,” Hammock said. “Those guys have been grinding. Grinding in the cage, grinding during BP and trying to get things right and today, was a step in the right direction.”

Perachi power

Curve reliever Dominic Perachi had his best outing since being promoted to Altoona April 25th.

Perachi powered through four shutout innings allowing only one hit en route to his first career save.

The southpaw struck out four of the 14 batters he faced while walking two.

Next up

Altoona sends right handed pitcher Po-Yu Chen to the mound for Thursday’s matinee against Somerset. Chen is 0-2 with a 6.30 ERA on the season.