The Erie SeaWolves’ Eastern League season was defined by strange baseball scenarios sprinkled amid numerous losses.

They experienced both with the last batter of their last game for 2012.

Altoona beat Erie 2-1 Monday afternoon at Jerry Uht Park. The Curve recorded the game’s final out when Daniel Fields’ check swing on a pitch in the dirt resulted in a soft grounder back to reliever Victor Black.

The cricket-type play concluded the SeaWolves’ 57-84 season, the third worst record by any of their teams since the franchise joined the league in 1999. Only the 2000 (47-94) and 2002 (52-89) teams were worse.

– Mike Copper

Altoona (72-70) scored its runs thanks to five consecutive hits in the top of the second inning off Erie starter Jared Wesson. Brandon Douglas scored Erie’s lone run on Jamie Johnson’s RBI ground out in the third, but the hosts never seriously threatened again.

Niuman Romero didn’t account for any of the SeaWolves’ six hits. Not only did that leave him third on the franchise’s all-time list for hits in a single season (157), but it cost him the league’s 2012 title for that category.

New Hampshire’s Ryan Goins finished with 158.

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The SeaWolves honored hitting coach Jerry Martin before the third inning of Monday’s game.

Martin, 63, announced his retirement from professional baseball after 41 years as a player or coach. He served as Erie’s hitting coach for its last two seasons.

Martin played Major League Baseball for 11 seasons, most notably with Philadelphia, which signed him as a minor leaguer in 1971. The South Carolina native was a member of the Phillies’ teams that won the National League Eastern Division from 1976-78.