CURVE, Pa. – Nick Cimillo launched his 20th home run of the season on Thursday night as Altoona overcame a rain delay of over two hours to defeat the Richmond Flying Squirrels, 8-2, at Peoples Natural Gas Field.

Cimillo’s three-run shot came in the bottom of the seventh inning off Tyler Vogel to cap off the scoring. He is the first Curve player to hit 20 home runs in a season since Aaron Shackelford (26) and Andres Alvarez (20) each did so in 2022. In his last 37 games, he has knocked 26 extra-base hits.

With Altoona leading 4-2 in the top of the sixth inning and the tying run at the plate for the Flying Squirrels, Mike Walsh entered the game to resume play after the delay and tossed 2.1 scoreless innings of relief. Justin Meis tossed the final inning to close out the win for the Curve.

Javier Rivas hit his third home run at Double-A and 21st of the season in the win, a solo shot in the sixth inning after the delay.

Konnor Griffin was hit by a pitch twice in the game. After he was hit in the bottom of the first inning, he came around to score on a wild pitch to give Altoona a 1-0 lead. In the second, Griffin was hit with the bases loaded, scoring a run to make it 2-0. Altoona added two runs in the third on an Omar Alfonzo RBI-double and a Rivas sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.

Emmanuel Chapman tossed a career-long 4.2 innings in the start for Altoona, striking out four batters and allowing four hits and two walks. He gave up one run in the fourth inning and left with a runner on first in the fifth before Derek Diamond allowed two hits to score the inherited runner. Diamond recorded three outs before the rain delay in his return from the injured list.

With the win, Altoona holds a 5.0 game lead over Erie for first place in the second half with nine games to play in the regular season. Richmond trails Altoona by 5.5 games, while Harrisburg trails by 6.0 games and Akron trails by 7.0 games.