The Result
Phillies - 7 runs to 5

The Curve - Year-to-Date
18 won and 10 lost

Brett's Position and the Batting Order
Playing - First base
Batting - #3

At the end of the Game
1 hit from 4 at-bats - single, 1 x run-batted-in, 1 x run scored

Brett's at-bats

This game was broadcast live on Internet Video
BUT - it wasn't very good!!!
No audio for some reason, and the picture was stop/start
However, we did watch Brett's first at-bat
before switching over to the audio broadcast

We snapped one photo - it's a bit blurry but okay!!!

and click on this thumbnail to have a look

First at-bat
Righthanded pitcher
Runners at first and second base - none down
Swinging at the first pitch
Driven up the middle and into centrefield
Single to centrefield - 1 x RBI
The runner at first base was tagged out trying to reach third base
Brett advanced to second base on a walk
Scored on a hit
Second at-bat
Righthanded pitcher
Runner at first base - one down
Ball - slider - low
Ball - fast ball - low
"And that ball is driven deep into centrefield ...... the fielder is looking up and going back ...... and he makes a leaping catch at the fence to make the out 405 feet away from the plate!!! ...... Roneberg was robbed of extra bases on that play"
Fly to centrefield - F8
Third at-bat
Righthanded pitcher
Bases empty - one down
Swing and a miss - change up
Foul ball - "and that's off Roneberg's foot"
Ball - "checked his swing and there is an appeal to the third base umpire who says he didn't go"
Foul ball - third base side
Ball - slider - high and away
Ball - slider - high and away
Foul ball - down the leftfield side
Foul ball - back to the screen
"There is a line drive into deep centrefield but the fielder gets across to make the grab ...... Roneberg has hit the last two balls very hard!!!"
Fly to centrefield - F8
Fourth at-bat
Righthanded pitcher
Runner at first base - one down
Ball - fast ball - outside
Called strike - fast ball - on the outside corner
Ball - change up - down and in
"That is driven deep and hard into rightfield and the fielder is on the run and makes a great catch ...... that had extra bases written all over it!!!"
Fly to rightfield - F9

Heard during the game

(#01) During Brett's third at-bat, the commentator mention that Brett is currently on a ten-game hitting streak - he also said that - "Roneberg is in his second stint with the Altoona Curve, and he has also played for the Portland Sea Dogs and the Harrisburg Senators ...... and during that time Brett has put up some very good numbers"

(#02) After Brett flew out in this third at-bat, he went on to say - "Boy, Roneberg is really locked in at the moment ...... he is currently 1-for-3 but he has hit all three balls very hard including two to deep centrefield"

(#03) As Brett came in for his fourth at-bat, the commentator said - "and the red hot Brett Roneberg now stands in ...... the Phillies are playing the lefty straight-away and very deep ...... Roneberg is hitting everything very hard"

Email from Brett

Three balls hit long and hard - but out on great catches!!
A little frustrating, that's for sure!!
Got one RBI-single but would've liked to have gotten a couple of hits
But as long as I don't change anything I will be fine
All is still pretty good!!

Game Reports

The Altoona Curve(18-10) lost back-to-back games for only the second time in 2006, falling to the Reading Phillies 7-5 at Blair County Ballpark

Adam Boeve, who was named the Eastern League Player of the Month earlier in the day, went 2-for-3 with two runs scored to lead the Curve offense

The paid attendance of 5,720 enjoyed a visit from retro celebrity Erik Estrada and featured the largest walk-up crowd in the history of Blair County Ballpark

The Curve wasted no-time on Friday night, jumping in front with a first-inning rally
Consecutive singles from Javier Guzman, Craig Stansberry and Brett Roneberg scored the Curve’s first run, before two more singles from Rafael Alvarez and Brandon Chaves chased home another pair of runners
The first of three-errors by Reading second baseman Tim Moss later allowed Alvarez to score and push the Altoona lead to 4-0

Reading chipped away at the lead scoring once in the fourth and twice more in the fifth to cut the Curve advantage to 4-3

An inning later, Phillies pitcher Scott Mathieson smashed a two-run homerun, only his second career hit, to give Reading their first lead of the night at 5-4

The lead wouldn’t last long however, because in the bottom of the frame the Curve once again took advantage of Phillies fielding blunders, as Chaves got his second RBI of the night, scoring Adam Boeve from third
Boeve had singled to start the frame, and moved to third following two more errors from Moss

After matching zeros in the seventh and eighth, the Phillies scored twice in the ninth off Curve reliever Chris Hernandez (1-1), to pull ahead 7-5

Reading reliever Nick Mattioni set Altoona down in order in the bottom of the ninth, to close out the game and pick up his third save of the season

The Curve will look to rebound from the loss when they take on the Phillies in the middle game of a three-game set on Saturday
Left-hander Josh Shortslef (4-0, 1.86) will toe the rubber for Altoona, and will be opposed by fellow south-paw Daniel Haigwood (1-1, 3.16)

After Reading’s Peter Bergeron led off the top of the sixth with a triple, Curve pitcher Matt Peterson struck out the next two batters to get to Reading pitcher Scott Mathieson
Mathieson, with his team losing 4-3, worked the count to 2-2, but the odds didn’t seem to be in his favor

“Nobody expects a pitcher to hit, right?” Mathieson said
"I expect to hit. You have to as a pitcher. I don’t know. I like being in those situations
I don’t know why he didn’t throw me an offspeed pitch because he would have had me”
Instead, Peterson threw a fastball, and Mathieson jumped on it, hitting the ball over Blair County Ballpark’s left field bleachers and nearly halfway up the hill, giving the Phillies a 5-4 lead

While the Curve would tie the game in the bottom of the frame, Reading would go on to win, 7-5, before 5,720 Friday night in the series opener

“Scott Mathieson did a great job” Curve manager Tim Lieper said
“Not only did he hit the home run, but he also became a little bit of a pitcher tonight
In that first inning, he came right after us, and we went right after him
After that, he had to change his gameplan, and he executed what he did”

“I think it shows what type of guys we have in the locker room” Reading manager P.J. Forbes said
“They never gave up, and I think it started with Mathieson and the way he pitches his last five innings
Everybody kind of fed off of him”

In the first inning, it looked like Mathieson wouldn’t last too long
The Curve (18-10) put together three straight hits to begin the frame and scored four runs
Brett Roneberg extended his hitting streak to 10 with a single that scored Javier Guzman
Rafael Alvarez chased Roneberg home with a single to center
Eastern League Player of the Month Adam Boeve scored on a Brandon Chaves single, and Alvarz scored on the first of three errors by second baseman Tim Moss

“We knew he was a guy who liked to get ahead with his fastball” Boeve said, “and we were just looking for our pitches earlier in the count and putting good swings on the ball”

After that, however, Mathieson retired 12 of the next 13 batters, giving up only a second-inning Craig Stansberry walk

The Curve did score an unearned run in the sixth on Chaves’ sacrifice fly, but Boeve’s leadoff single in the frame was the only hit Mathieson gave up after the first

“I think he settled down, got a little better” Boeve said
“He started working his other pitches a bit more
Maybe we just sat back a little bit too much when we should have tried to jump on him”

“They hit some good pitches” Mathieson said
“I was missing over the plate a bit
They had a couple broken-bat hits, but they were still dropping in there
It was one of those rough innings that everybody has to go through once in awhile
I definitely thought I started hitting my spots
I changed from how I was pitching before”

The Reading hitters, meanwhile started chipping away at the Curve’s lead

Bergeron’s infield hit in the fourth scored Jim Rushford
They scored two more in the fifth on back-to-back sacrifice flys by John Castellano and Rushford
Castellano had two of the Phillies’ three sacrifice flys
Reading also had two sacrifice bunts

“They played great” Lieper said
“They didn’t try to get all four runs back at one time
They did the little things right
I was kind of impressed with what they did”

And then Mathieson gave the Phils (12-14) the lead with a home run that was longer than the line of autograph seekers for Erik Estrada
Asked if he’s ever hit a ball that far, the 6-foot-3, 190-pounder from British Columbia said, “Maybe in bp (batting practice), but never in a game”

“I think Team Canada found that right-handed bat we’ve been needing for a long time” joked Lieper, who served as a coach for Canada in the 2004 Olympics and the World Baseball Classic

“If we don’t score there, it kind of takes the air out of our balloon” Forbes said
“He gave us the lead, and it kind of kept our momentum going”

Josh Sharpless, the Curve’s stopper in the bullpen, worked two scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth before Leiper turned it over to Chris Hernandez in the ninth
Reading’s Jesus Merchan, a late subsitute, led off with a single, and he bulled his way past catcher Milver Reyes to score on Michael Bourn’s double
Carlos Leon moved Bourn to third with a bunt, Castellano scored him with a sacrifice fly

“We didn’t make the best pitches in the world with two strikes” Lieper said
“But I’d give any one of them (relievers) the ball in the same situation”

The Curve, who began the night with a half-game lead over Akron in the EL South, went 1-2-3 in the ninth

“It’s a big win for us” Forbes said
“The team on the other side swings it and they’ve got pitching
Right now, they’re kind of the measuring stick in the league”

The Reading Phillies rallied from a 4-0 first-inning deficit Friday night to beat the Altoona Curve 7-5 at Blair County Ballpark

The Phillies (12-14) scored twice in the top of the ninth inning to win for the third time in four games

The Curve (18-10) have dropped two in a row after a three-game winning streak

Altoona scored four runs in the first against Scott Mathieson
Brett Roneberg, Rafael Alvarez and Brandon Chaves each had an RBI single in the inning
The final run scored on one of four Reading errors in the game

The Phillies began their comeback in the fourth on an RBI single by Peter Bergeron
Sacrifice flies by John Castellano and Jim Rushford cut it to 4-3 in the fifth

Meanwhile, Mathieson settled down, retiring 11 straight at one point

Reading took its first lead in the sixth when Mathieson launched a mammoth two-run homer to left to make it 5-4

The Curve quickly tied the game in the bottom of the inning with an unearned run

Winning pitcher Adam Shafer (1-2) escaped a first-and-third situation in the eighth by getting Chaves to ground into an inning-ending double play

In the ninth, Jesus Merchan started the rally with a single off Chris Hernandez (1-1)
Merchan scored on Michael Bourn's double to left
Bourn later scored on another sacrifice fly by Castellano

Nick Mattioni retired the side in order in the ninth to record his third save, all of them coming this week