Brawl breaks out between Class AA Altoona, Richmond

UPDATE: Wednesday, April 20

Altoona Curve pitcher Oliver Garcia was suspended for four games today for his role in the benches-clearing situation Saturday night at Richmond.

As you can see in the video below, Garcia threw a pitch behind the Richmond batter, leading to both benches emptying.

Garcia is a 24-year-old right-hander who is in his first season at Class AA. He has appeared in three games for Altoona, giving up one unearned run while striking out six with two walks over four innings.

ORIGINAL STORY

ALTOONA, Pa. -- A brawl broke out between Class AA Altoona and Richmond late Saturday at The Diamond in Virginia after Curve pitcher Oliver Garcia threw a pitch behind Flying Squirrels batter Jacob Heyward in the eighth inning.

There had already been some bad blood building up between the teams during the game, leading to this situation in the eighth. Richmond brodcaster Trey Wilson has a fantastic call of the action (which comes in at the 22-second mark in the video below).

"A fight has broken out behind home plate. They're throwing punches. They're pushing and shoving," Wilson said during his radio call.

Garcia was immediately ejected after throwing the pitch.

Here's another view of the brawl.

The Curve led the game 4-2 in the seventh inning before Richmond scored four runs to take the lead. Both sides had already been warned in the game, which Richmond eventually won, 8-4.

"We could see this coming over the last few innings," Wilson said on the radio call during the bench-clearing ordeal.

Sean Roby homered for Richmond in the sixth inning, then the next batter, Tyler Fitzgerald, was hit by Curve reliever Noe Toribio.

In the eighth inning, Altoona's Connor Scott was hit by Richmond reliever Chris Wright.

As you can hear in the video explanation above, Curve catcher Blake Sabol and Heyward exchanged words before the at-bat in the eighth inning and had to be separated by the plate umpire. Then Curve reliever Garcia threw behind the batter on the first pitch. That sort of thing is pretty much always going to lead to an ejection, and the umpire tossed Garcia right away.

"Behind Heyward, and that's gonna cause a problem," Wilson said right away on the radio call, seconds before the benches cleared and the brawl began.

Sabol and Curve manager Kieran Mattison also were ejected, along with Garcia, and Heyward was ejected for Richmond.