The Result
Curve - 5 runs to 4

The Curve - Year-to-Date
11 wins and 11 losses

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

---------Came out of the game when it was two down in the bottom of the seventh innings - double switch

Brett's at-bats
First plate appearance
Righthanded pitcher
Bases empty - two down
Called strike - fast ball - on the outside corner
"That is hit back up the middle but it's cut off by the second-baseman and the throw is made across to first base for the final out of the innings"
Ground out to second base - 4 to 3

Second plate appearance
Righthanded pitcher
Led off the innings
Foul ball - dribbled down the third base line
Called strike
"Roneberg swings and misses at that breaking ball ... it wasn't taken cleanly by the Defenders' catcher but he collects the ball and throws on to first base to complete the play"
Strike out
Third plate appearance
Righthanded pitcher
Bases empty - two down
Ball - low and outside
"That ball is hit hard but straight at the first-baseman ... he collects the ball and takes it to the base himself for the final out of the innings"
Ground out to first base - PO3
Fourth plate appearance
Righthanded pitcher
Runner at first base - two down
From the game play-by-play report - top of the seventh innings
------Luis Munoz strikes out swinging
------Jason Bowers hit by pitch
------Andrew McCutchen pops out to second baseman Jake Wald
------Brett Roneberg grounds out, shortstop Mark Minicozzi to first baseman Travis Ishikawa
Ground out to shortstop - 6 to 3

At the end of the Game
0 hit from 4 at-bats - 1 x strike out

Heard during the game

(01) As he was announcing the starting line ups, the commentator said - "Brett Roneberg is batting third and playing leftfield ... and he is back in uniform #17 tonight"

Email from Brett

Game Reports

Steven Pearce made his first Double-A start a memorable one, belting the first pitch he saw from Connecticut starter Ben Cox over the left-field wall for a home run, igniting the Curve, as they jumped to a 5-0 lead and then held off a Connecticut comeback bid to win 5-4

Pearce's blast in the second inning was followed by a Neil Walker homer to center, as the Curve hit back-to-back home runs for the first time this year, and built a 2-0 lead

Pearce led the minor leagues with eleven home runs in April while at Lynchburg (A)

Walker's drive was his third of the year

Meanwhile, Curve starter Luis Munoz (3-0) was cruising. Munoz, who was brilliant in 8-2/3 innings against Bowie in his last start, was again masterful, stifling the Defenders through six innings
Munoz earned the win, leaving after walking the first two men he faced in the seventh inning, both of whom would later score

The Curve added to their lead in the fourth
Again it was Pearce who was the catalyst, as he doubled with one out
Walker took a walk behind him and following another walk to Adam Boeve, Dave Parrish grounded out to score Pearce and run the lead to 3-0
Brandon Chaves followed with an RBI single to plate Walker and the Curve led 4-0

Altoona got an unearned run in the sixth for a 5-0 lead, before the momentum turned toward Connecticut in the seventh
Munoz walked the first two and was removed from the game in favor of Dave Davidson
The left-hander promptly struck out Simon Klink, but conceded a double to Steven Holm that scored the first Defender run to make it 5-1
With runners at second and third, Jake Wald bounced out to second base to score Travis Ishikawa and cut the Curve lead to three runs
Following a walk, John Bowker singled home Holm and the Defenders were back within two
Matt Peterson came on and recorded the final out of the inning to keep the lead at 5-3

Geno Espineli came out of the Defender bullpen to stymie the Curve in the eighth and ninth innings, which gave Connecticut another chance to mount a rally

Peterson stayed in the game and worked a scoreless eighth

In the ninth, he recorded the first two outs in quick succession, but then walked Todd Jennings to bring the tying run to the plate
John Bowker doubled home Jennings to make it 5-4, but Peterson fanned Mark Minicozzi to end the ballgame and pick up his third save of the season

Cox (0-3) absorbed the loss for the Defenders

With the victory, Altoona has earned the series win
They will look for the sweep tomorrow afternoon in the series finale at 12.35pm
LHP Josh Shortslef (0-3, 3.86) will make the start for the Curve against RHP Darren Sack (1-1, 2.57) for Connecticut

It only took the first pitch of his second at-bat to get Minors' home run leader Steven Pearce back into roundtripper form
Pearce cranked his 12th dinger as visiting Altoona edged Connecticut, 5-4, on Wednesday

He amassed 11 homers while playing for Class A Advanced Lynchburg, earning Carolina League Player of the Week honors last week
He was promoted to the Curve (11-11) on Tuesday
In his first at-bat as a pinch-hitter in Tuesday night's game, Pearce struck out
But Wednesday, the 24-year-old got the start at first base and batting cleanup, and he led off the second inning by smacking the first offering from Defenders starter Ben Cox over the left-field wall
Taken by the Pirates in the eighth round of the 2005 draft out of South Carolina, Pearce also doubled in the fourth and scored twice
With Lynchburg, he had 24 RBIs and hit .347
In his two seasons for the Gamecocks, Pearce led the team in average, home runs and RBIs
With 42 homers in two years, he became the quickest player in South Carolina history to reach the 40-home run plateau

Neil Walker followed Pearce's home run with one of his own in the next at-bat

Altoona plated two more runs in the fourth on David Parrish's RBI forceout and Brandon Chavez's run-scoring single

The Curve added another in the sixth when Adam Boeve scored from second on a throwing error by shortstop Mark Minicozzi

Luis Munoz (3-0) pitched six strong innings in his fourth start for the Curve, allowing two runs on a pair of hits and three walks while striking out three
In 27-2/3 innings, Munoz has yielded just 15 hits, striking out 19 and walking six

Matt Peterson surrendered a run on a hit and two walks over 2-1/3 innings, striking out three to earn his third save

Cox (0-3) gave up four runs in five innings on five hits and a pair of walks, striking out six

Connecticut (7-13) scored four times in the final three innings

John Bowker drove in two with an RBI single in the seventh and a run-scoring double in the ninth

The Connecticut Defenders hosted the Altoona Curve in game 2 of a three game set at Dodd Stadium
The game saw a pitching match up between two right-handed pitchers
RHP Ben Cox started for the Defenders against RHP Luis Munoz of the Curve
Munoz would win the pitching battle in a solid effort as Altoona would win the game 5-4

After a scoreless first inning, Altoona scored first in the second inning
Number 6 prospect as rated by Baseball America, 1B Steven Pearce, recorded his first double-A start
He’d make it a memorable one, as he’d homer in his first at-bat in the second, the first of back-to-back homeruns as 3B Neil Walker followed with one of his own
After 2 full innings the Curve would lead it 2-0

Altoona would strike again in the top of the fourth inning
Cox would strikeout the leadoff batter but proceed to surrender a double and two walks to Pearce, Walker and OF Adam Boeve
With the bases loaded C Dave Parrish would ground to the shortstop, but Pearce would come down the line to score in the process
The very next batter, SS Brandon Chaves would hit an RBI single to right field scoring Walker to plate the second run of the inning
At the end of 4 innings, Altoona led it 4-0

In the top of the sixth inning, starter Ben Cox would be relieved by RHP Brooks McNiven
After retiring the first two batters in order, Boeve would single off McNiven and steal second base
The following batter Parish would hit a ground ball to shortstop Mark Minicozzi, which was fielded but thrown high to first base for an E6, and Boeve would come around to score on the play
That would extend the Altoona lead to 5-0

In the bottom of the seventh inning the Defenders would start to rally
Munoz would walk OF Eddy Martinez-Esteve and 1B Travis Ishikawa to start the inning
He’d give way to RHP Dave Davidson who would strikeout the next batter 3B Simon Klink, swinging
C Steve Holm would step up with runners still on first and second and deliver a double passed a diving Walker at third base to score Martinez-Esteve from second, while Ishikawa advanced to third
Next SS Jake Wald would groundout to 2B Jason Bowers, but Ishikawa would come down the line to score as well
After pinch hitter Pat Dobson walked to put runners at the corners, OF John Bowker delivered an RBI single to score the third run of the inning for the Defenders
Altoona would lead 5-3 after 7 innings

As a result the Connecticut Defenders came up short and fell to the Altoona Curve 5-4

Starter Ben Cox (L, 0-3) took the loss in the game pitching 5 innings, surrendering 5 hits, 4 runs, walking 2 and striking out 6 batters

Luis Munoz (W, 3-0) pitched very well en route to the victory tossing 6 innings, giving up 2 runs, 2 hits, walking 3, and striking out 3 batters

Matt Peterson (S, 3) picked up his third save of the season pitching 2.1 innings, giving up 1 run, 1 hit, 2 walks, and 3 strikeouts

The Defenders lost their third in a row and drop to 7-13 on the season
Altoona improves to 11-11 with the victory

Game three is scheduled for a 12.35pm start time on Thursday, May 3

Pitcher Luis Munoz continued his early season excellence for the Curve, though he was upstaged a bit Wednesday by his newest teammate, Steven Pearce
A slugger who leads the minor leagues with 12 home runs, Pearce belted one out of the park in just his second Double-A at-bat to help Altoona build a 5-0 lead on Connecticut
Munoz turned in his fourth consecutive strong start, then Altoona’s bullpen barely held on in a 5-4 win at Dodd Stadium

Munoz took a shutout into the seventh inning but departed after walking the first two batters
Reliever Dave Davidson allowed both inherited runners to score, plus one of his own, as the Defenders closed within 5-3

Connecticut added another run in the ninth off Matt Peterson, but the Curve closer regrouped and stranded the tying run at second base to earn his third save

Munoz (3-0) allowed two runs on only two hits, walked three and struck out three for the win
Wednesday’s strong performance came on the heels of a dominating turn his last time out when he carried a one-hit shutout into the ninth inning against Bowie

Pearce, promoted from Single-A Lynchburg on Tuesday, struck out as a pinch hitter that night in his Curve debut
He wasted little time making a good impression on his new teammates as he smacked a homer to left leading off the second inning Wednesday
Altoona got back-to-back homers as Neil Walker followed Pearce’s blast with one of his own
Pearce added a double in the fourth and finished 2-for-4, with both of his hits igniting two-run innings for the Curve

Brandon Chaves had an RBI single and Dave Parrish a run-scoring groundout for Altoona

Connecticut starter Ben Cox (0-3) gave up four runs over five innings for the loss

There may have been more life in the bats of the Connecticut Defenders Wednesday night but, when it mattered most, the offense fell flat
Unable to take advantage of a bases-load, no-out situation in the fifth inning and having the potential game-tying run in scoring position in the ninth, the Defenders lost, 5-4, against the Altoona Curve at Dodd Stadium

"We battled, we came back, we had a shot" Connecticut manager Dave Machemer said
"We had a shot to tie it
We had a good opportunity there - we didn't quit
We just came up a little short"

Connecticut fell behind by two runs early when starter Ben Cox surrendered back-to-back home runs to Steven Pearce, who made his Double-A debut Tuesday, and Neil Walker
With the wind blowing out to left, Pearce lined a shot down the line
Three pitches later, Walker got some help from the wind as he placed Cox's offering behind the first fence

Cox struggled again in the fourth, once again allowing two runs to score
On this occasion, he wasn't as economical
With one out, Cox yielded a double to Pearce and back-to-back walks before David Parrish drove in the first run on a grounder to short
Brandon Chaves singled to right to drive in the second run

Bats struggle

The Defenders' first prime opportunity to score arrived in the fifth
Travis Ishikawa singled to left and Simon Klink reached on an error by Chaves
Steve Holm loaded the bases when he was hit by a Luis Munoz pitch
Instead of capitalizing on the golden opportunity that presented itself, the Defenders looked more meager than mighty
Jake Wald hit a liner back to Munoz, who threw to home to start the 1-2-3 double play
With runners on second and third and no one out, Machemer summoned Carlos Sosa to pinch-hit for Cox
Sosa struck out to end the inning, leaving the Defenders (7-13) scoreless

"Things will start to change when we start hitting in that situation" Sosa said of the team's struggles
"I'm a power hitter and I try too many times to hit a home run, maybe a double"

In the sixth inning, Adam Boeve hit a two-out single, stole second and scored when shortstop Mark Minicozzi threw the ball well over Ishikawa's head at first

Trailing 5-0, the Defenders finally broke through in the seventh inning
Eddy Martinez-Esteve and Ishikawa picked up consecutive walks to start the inning
After Klink struck out, Holm doubled to left, driving in Martinez-Esteve
Wald then grounded to second, allowing Ishikawa to come in from third and advancing Holm
After Patrick Dobson walked, John Bowker drove in Holm with a single to left-center

Then, with two out in the ninth, pinch-hitter Todd Jennings walked on four pitches and scored on Bowker's RBI double to cut Altoona's lead to one
The task of keeping the Defenders' hopes of winning alive fell to Mark Minicozzi, who was playing in just his second game of the season
But Minicozzi struck out against Matt Peterson to close out the game
Once again, the Defenders were unable to bring home a runner in scoring position

"We battled all nine innings, that was the most important thing" Martinez-Esteve said
"I guess we're struggling a little bit when there are guys on base
But we did a better job Wednesday"

Thursday's series finale is a 12.35pm matinee
The starters are Altoona LHP Josh Shortslef (0-3, 3.86) versus Connecticut RHP Darren Sack (1-1, 1.93)