The Result
Senators - 6 runs to 4

The Curve - Year-to-Date
43 won and 29 lost

Brett's Position and the Batting Order
Playing - Leftfield
Batting - #4

At the end of the Game
1 hit from 5 at-bats - single, 1 x run-batted-in

Brett's at-bats
First at-bat
Lefthanded pitcher
Bases empty - one down
Ball - low and away
Called strike - on the outside corner
"There's a ground ball towards the Senators' first-baseman who collects the ball and takes it to the base himself for the second out of the innings"
Ground out to first base - PO3
Second at-bat
Lefthanded pitcher
Bases empty - two down
Called strike - on the outside corner
Ball - low and outside
"That is hit right back at the pitcher who collects and throws across to first base for the final out of the innings"
Ground out to the pitcher - 1 to 3
Third at-bat
Lefthanded pitcher
Runner at third base - one down
Ball - breaking ball
Foul ball - on the left hand side
Foul ball - down the leftfield line
"That ball is bounced over the pitcher's head and, because the infield was drawn in, it gets out into centrefield for a hit and the runner comes in to score ...... and that shows that you don't have to always hit the ball hard - you just have to get the ball in play, and we have seen this a few times in this game so far"
Single to centrefield - 1 x RBI
Advanced to second base on a hit
Reached third base on a wild pitch - "the catcher lost that ball for a moment - he realised it was at his feet and he picked it up and threw to third base but Roneberg was in safely"
Left stranded at the end of the innings

Fourth at-bat
Righthanded pitcher
Runner at first base - one down
Foul ball - on the left hand side
Called strike - fast ball - on the outside corner
Foul ball - down the leftfield line
Ball - fast ball - low and away - "and that pitch was a balk (quick pitch) and the runner is awarded second base and is now in scoring position for Roneberg"
"That ball is hit back at the pitcher and he is able to knock it down and now he gathers it up, checks the runner, and throws Roneberg out at first base and the runner cannot advance"
Ground out to the pitcher - 1 to 3
Fifth at-bat
Righthanded pitcher
Runner at second base - two down
......and the Curve are trailing 4-runs-to-6 in the top of the ninth innings!!!
Brett is the tying run!!!
"Roneberg pops that ball up into shallow leftfield and the fielder is coming in and he makes the catch to end the game"
Fly out to leftfield - F7

Heard during the game

(#01) The bottom of the fourth innings, and the Senators had a runner at first base and it was one down - the next hitter drove the ball into leftfield and the commentator said - "That ball is going down the line and Roneberg is chasing it ...... and he maaaakes a nice catch!!! ...... Brett covered a lot of ground there and when he made the catch, it looked like he was taking a pass over his shoulder ...... the runner was leading off but he had to return to first base"

Email from Brett

Game Reports

The Altoona Curve let a 4-0 lead slip away in the late innings Friday night, as they fell to the Harrisburg Senators 6-4 at Commerce Bank Park

The Senators had just one hit through six innings, but plated six runs in their last two at-bats to salvage a series split

The Senators sent nine men to the plate in the seventh inning, chasing starter Ron Chiavacci from the game and tying the game with four runs

Harrisburg would take the lead for good in the eighth frame, when Kory Casto blasted his twelfth homerun of the season, a two-run shot against Derrik Moeves

Chiavacci earned a no-decision, despite allowing just one baserunner through the first six innings

The Senators finally got to the right-hander in the seventh inning and snapped his shutout-inning streak at fourteen

Chiavacci allowed three runs on three hits and six strikeouts in 6-1/3 innings

Moeves took the loss for the Curve after allowing the eventual game-winning runs on the Casto homer in the eighth inning

Daniel Foli improved to 2-0 for the Senators, pitching a perfect eighth inning that included two strikeouts

Brett Campbell would get credit for a save, after being called on to shut down the Curve for the ninth inning

The Curve started the game quickly, scoring in their first at-bat for the third time in this four-game series
Javier Guzman singled to lead off the game, and was plated when the next batter, Craig Stansberry tripled

Guzman would finish with his team-high twenty-third multi-hit game of the season, including a solo homerun in the fifth

Stansberry led all Curve batters with four hits, going 4-for-5 with two runs scored and an RBI

Altoona dominated the action for the first six innings, leading 4-0 and allowing just one baserunner

The Senators collected four of their seven base hits in the seventh frame, when they tied the game

The Curve will now travel to Akron for a three-game set against the Aeros beginning on Saturday night at 7.05pm
Matt Peterson will start for the Curve against Aaron Laffey for the Aeros

Kory Casto's two-run homer in the eighth inning lifted Harrisburg to a 6-4 victory over visiting Altoona on Friday

After the Senators (40-32) rallied for four runs in the seventh to forge a 4-4 deadlock, Casto slammed his twelfth blast over the center-field wall
The 24-year-old third baseman has an Eastern League-leading fifty-one RBIs, while Harrisburg leads with sixty homers

Craig Stansberry, who went 4-for-5, ripped an RBI triple and Vic Buttler delivered a sacrifice fly in the first for the Curve (43-29)

A leadoff homer by Javier Guzman and a run-scoring single by Brett Roneberg in the fifth gave Altoona a 4-0 lead

The Senators scored in the seventh on an RBI groundout by Josh Whitesell, a two-run triple by Dan Dement and an RBI single by Joshua Emmerick

Harrisburg reliever Daniel Foli (2-0) struck out two in a perfect eighth for the win, and Brett Campbell gave up a hit in a scoreless ninth to notch his fifth save

Reliever Derrik Moeves (0-1) surrendered Casto's roundtripper and took the loss as the teams split the four-game series

For six innings on Friday night the game mirrored Thursday's as the Senators were shut out for the first six innings
But on Friday night, the Sens, trailing 4-0 into the bottom of the seventh scored four times to tie the game and then two more in the eighth for a 6-4 win

The rally made a winner out of Dan Foli who pitched a perfect eighth inning before turning things over to Brett Campbell in the ninth

With the win the Senators are 40-32 while Altoona falls to 43-29

Altoona scored a pair of runs in the first then two more in the fifth and appeared headed for the win when the Sens finally struck in the seventh
Tim Raines Jr. led off by reaching on a single
Kory Casto followed with a walk and then Prentice Redman dumped a single into left field to load the bases
Josh Whitesell followed with a run scoring ground out, that also advanced the runners into scoring position
It also spelled the end of the night for former Senator, Ron Chiavacci
Chris Hernandez came in for the Curve and Dan DeMent greeted him with a two-run triple to make it 4-3
After Seth Bynum tried to reach on a bunt, Josh Emmerick had one of the biggest hits in his Senators career, a run scoring single to left to tie the game

In the bottom of the eighth, Raines again led off with a single, his third hit of the night
Kory Casto then worked the count to his favor and delivered a two-run home run to straightaway center field over the 400 foot marker to give the Senators a 6-4 lead

In the top of the ninth with Campbell on the mound, Javier Guzman popped up into shallow left and Melvin Dorta, playing deep, came racing in and made a sliding catch for the first out
After a double by the pesky Craig Stansberry, Vic Buttler lined a ball to right field that Prentice Redman came in on and made a head long dive towards home plate for the catch and the second out of the inning
Brett Roneberg then popped out to left to end the ballgame and Campbell had his fifth save of the year

The Senators and Curve split the four-game series

Six-and-a-half innings into last night's Eastern League tilt between the visiting Altoona Curve and the Harrisburg Senators, the story line read simply
Former Senators pitcher Ron Chiavacci flawlessly mows through his old club with a one-hit shutout

But no matter what prognosticators might think, baseball is not a predictable game

The Senators proved it by scoring six times over the seventh and eighth innings to stun the Curve 6-4 before 3,528 fans at Commerce Bank Park
Six runs on six extremely clutch hits

This after Chiavacci limited Harrisburg to one bleeder by Tim Raines Jr. and zero walks through the first six innings

Altoona's 4-0 lead, thanks to two runs in the first and two more in the fifth, looked about as safe as any four-run lead in the history of this great sport

"In the seventh inning, we didn't expect to win that game" Senators manager John Stearns said
"But in baseball, you can never count on the obvious happening because it'll change in a heartbeat"

Raines, Kory Casto and Prentice Redman provided that heartbeat last night by loading the bases against Chiavacci with nobody out in the seventh on another bleeder, a walk and a bloop single, respectively
Josh Whitesell hammered an RBI groundout to first base to put the Senators (40-32) on the board before Curve skipper Tim Leiper went to the bullpen
Dan DeMent greeted reliever Chris Hernandez with a two-run triple
And after a botched bunt by Seth Bynum, Josh Emmerick grounded a two-out single into left to plate DeMent with the tying run

"When Redman dropped that ball in there, I knew it was going to be big" DeMent said of Redman's blooper into shallow left field
"This team we got here, we don't die as a group, even if we only have one hit and are down 4-0 going into the seventh"

"Four runs?" he continued "We can score four runs in no time"

But a tie gets you nothing in baseball
This isn't World Cup soccer

So Raines again started something in the eighth, smacking a clean single to center off reliever Derrik Moeves (0-1)
Next, Casto worked ahead of the count before crushing a two-run rainmaker over the wall in dead center for a 6-4 lead
It was his team-high twelfth home run of the season, and Stearns admitted he gave serious thought to bunting Casto instead of letting him swing

"Stearns likes to bunt in those situations, but he went with his instincts this time" Casto said

Added Stearns - "I was almost dumb enough to bunt him there, but the way he's swinging the bat, there's no way you can bunt that guy right now"

The Senators received an inning each of scoreless relief from Devin Perrin, Dan Foli (2-0) and Brett Campbell, who notched his fifth save in his first action since June 16

The new Senators closer had been out with a back injury
But he didn't get through the ninth inning alone
Left fielder Melvin Dorta and the right fielder, Redman, both made spectacular diving catches
Dorta's catch kept leadoff hitter Javier Guzman off base before Craig Stansberry (4-for-5) followed with a double
Redman robbed Vic Buttler of a single on the next at-bat

"Dorta's catch was huge" DeMent said
"No matter if you're up one or two, you never want that leadoff guy to get on base because anything can happen
If that's a hit, Stansberry knocks him in with a double and the tying run is on second base with nobody out"

If the Senators are playing meaningful baseball in September, circle this win on your calendar
"That was a pleasant surprise" Stearns said
"That was definitely one of our top wins of the year"

Notes
The victory kept the Senators three games behind second-place Altoona (43-29) in the South Division standings, which is exactly where they started this series - ad Harrisburg lost, it would have fallen five games back in the race for the division's last playoff berth
Dorta (0-for-4) saw his six-game hitting streak snapped
Stansberry extended his hitting streak to eight games for Altoona - three of his hits went for extra bases with two doubles and a triple
Chiavacci, a Scranton native, pitched for Harrisburg from 2001 to 03 - he finished the game with six strikeouts and three hits in 6-1/3 innings
Harrisburg starter David Maust didn't have his best stuff, allowing four runs on nine hits in six innings, but he stranded six base runners to keep Harrisburg within striking distance

The Curve haven’t blown many games this season, but they blew a big one Friday night

Altoona led 4-0 in the seventh inning against a listless Harrisburg club, only to see the Senators storm back for a 6-4 win at Commerce Bank Park

Given the teams’ positions in the standings, the loss meant more to the Curve than a typical setback
There’s still half a season left, but the Southern Division’s two playoff spots are clearly up for grabs between three teams
Akron has a stronghold on first place with a four-game lead, while second-place Altoona and third-place Harrisburg appear to be in position for a dogfight the rest of the way

The Curve led the Senators by four games entering Friday and, up 4-0, seemed headed to make it a five-game cushion

The collapse over the final three innings cost Altoona two games in the standings as Harrisburg is now just three behind
The rest of the division has a long ways to go to catch up, with Erie (11 games behind Altoona), Bowie (12) and Reading (14) playoff longshots at this point

Curve starter Ron Chiavacci carried a one-hit shutout into the seventh inning before Harrisburg rallied

The Senators tied it with four runs in the seventh - three off Chiavacci, one off Chris Hernandez - and won thanks to Kory Casto’s two-run homer off Derrik Moeves (0-1) in the eighth

Daniel Foli (2-0) won in relief for Harrisburg, while Brett Campbell worked the ninth for his fifth save

Craig Stansberry went 4-for-5 with a triple and two doubles for Altoona
He tripled home Javier Guzman and scored on Vic Buttler’s sacrifice fly in the first

The Curve stretched the lead to 4-0 in the fifth behind a solo homer from Guzman and an RBI single by Brett Roneberg, scoring Stansberry

Chiavacci gave up two singles, a walk and a wild pitch leading to a run in the seventh inning

Hernandez then allowed two inherited runners to score before Joshua Emmerick pulled Harrisburg even with an RBI single