Mother Nature has beaten the Curve for the sixth time this season

Thursday night’s scheduled game against Harrisburg was postponed after a nearly 80-minute delay
The skies were clear in the state’s capitol most of the afternoon, but dark clouds followed by heavy rain and lightning rolled in about 5.30pm

Altoona and Harrisburg will play a doubleheader Saturday evening, set to begin at 5.05pm

Yoslan Herrera and Collin Balester, the top prospect in the Nationals’ organization, will start tonight’s game

Tonight’s scheduled starters, the Curve’s Kip Bouknight and Harrisburg’s Jim Magrane, will start in Saturday’s doubleheader
Curve right-hander Luis Munoz will draw the second start against lefty Mike Hinckley

Altoona will be looking to continue to feast on Harrisburg’s poor start
The Curve own a 95-66 record all-time against the Senators, and their .590 winning percentage is their best against any EL opponent
The Curve and Senators have played once this season, with Altoona taking three of four at Blair County Ballpark

The Result
Senators - 6 runs to 1

The Curve - Year-to-Date
15 wins and 15 losses

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

Brett's at-bats
First plate appearance
Did not hear this plate appearance due to radio problems
The details below are from the top of the first innings play-by-play report
Righthanded pitcher
Bases empty - two down
----------Andrew McCutchen strikes out swinging - catcher Devin Ivany to first baseman Josh Whitesell
----------Brandon Chaves called out on strikes
----------Brett Roneberg doubles (5) on a line drive to centerfielder Rogearvin Bernadina
----------Steven Pearce flies out to centerfielder Rogearvin Bernadina
Double to centrefield
Left stranded at the end of the innings
Second plate appearance
Righthanded pitcher
Runner at first base - two down
Ball - low
Ball - outside
Swing and a miss - change up
"That is hit across the diamond to the Senators' second-baseman who collects the ball and throws on to first base for the final out of the innings"
Ground out to second base - 4 to 3
Third plate appearance
Righthanded pitcher
Runners at first and third base - none down
Called strike
Ball - low
"There's a hard hit line drive but it is hit straight at the rightfielder who makes the catch ... the runner at third base has tagged and is heading for home!!! ... and here comes the throw!!! ... and the Curve runner is out at the plate!!! ... so the Curve are now two down with a runner at first base ... that was a great throw from the Senators' rightfielder, bouncing on one hop straight to the catcher who was easily able to make the tag on the runner"
Line out to rightfield - F9
Fourth plate appearance
Righthanded pitcher
Led of the innings
Ball
Called strike - "Brett was showing bunt there and that is a rarity for him"
Ball - fast ball - tailing away
Ball - fast ball - high
Called strike - ???
"Brett pops that up into shallow leftfield and the fielder is charging in and he makes the catch for the first out of the innings"
Fly out to leftfield - F7

At the end of the Game
1 hit from 4 at-bats - double

Heard during the game

Email from Brett

Game Reports

Juan Melo delivered a pinch-hit two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning to help the Harrisburg Senators end a seven-game losing streak with a 6-1 win over the Altoona Curve Friday night at Commerce Bank Park in Harrisburg

In addition to ending a seven-game overall losing skid, Harrisburg (8-24) stopped a streak of nine consecutive home losses

The Curve (15-15) dropped their second straight game to fall back to the .500 mark

Melo broke a 1-1 tie when he came off the bench and drilled a changeup from Curve reliever Justin Vaclavik over the right-field wall to give Harrisburg its first lead

Vaclavik (1-2), who allowed three more Senators' run in the eighth, took the loss for Altoona

Reliever Dan Kolb (1-0) pitched a scoreless top of the seventh inning to qualify for his first win for Harrisburg

Altoona missed out on several early scoring opportunities against Senators' starter and top-rated Washington Nationals' pitching prospect Collin Balester
The Curve had eight runners reach scoring position in the contest, but scored just one run on Adam Boeve's solo home run in the top of the sixth
Boeve's longball gave Altoona a brief 1-0 lead, but Harrisburg evened the game in the bottom of the frame when Brandon Larson drilled a long homer to left-center field off Curve starter Yoslan Herrera

Herrera, who entered Friday's start with a 7.13 ERA over his first five outings, allowed just one run on four hits over six innings of work to receive a no decision

The Curve recorded nine hits in the loss, including 2-for-4 efforts from Brandon Chaves and Neil Walker

The Curve and Senators will play a doubleheader Saturday evening at Commerce Bank Park to make up for Thursday's postponed contest
First pitch for game one of the twinbill is set for 5.05pm
The two clubs will play a pair of seven-inning contests
Altoona will send right-handers Kip Bouknight (3-0, 2.45) and Luis Munoz (4-0, 2.08) to the mound as the duo will look to keep their perfect records intact
Harrisburg will counter with lefty Mike Hinckley (4-2, 2.97) in the opener and right-hander Jim Magrane (0-2, 7.79) in the nightcap

Pinch-hitter Juan Melo homered to snap a seventh-inning tie as Harrisburg ended a seven-game losing streak with a 6-1 victory over visiting Altoona on Friday

With one out in the seventh, Curve reliever Justin Vaclavik (1-2) walked Wade Robinson
Melo batted for reliever Dan Kolb and sent a drive over the right-field fence for his second homer of the season to give the Senators (8-24) a 3-1 lead

Josh Whitesell laced a two-run triple and scored on Dan DeMent's double in the eighth for Harrisburg, which won for the first time since a 6-4 victory over Akron on May 2

Whitesell went 2-for-3 to raise his batting average to .354, while Brandon Larson had two hits and two runs scored

Kolb (1-0) walked one and struck out two in a scoreless seventh for the win

Brett Campbell walked one and fanned two in two hitless innings for his second save

Adam Boeve slugged his second homer with two outs in the sixth for Altoona (15-15)

Brandon Chaves and Neil Walker each had two hits for the Curve, who left eight runners on base

Vaclavik was tagged for five runs on four hits and two walks in one inning

Altoona starter Yoslan Herrera went six innings, allowing one run on four hits and two walks while striking out five

The Curve had a bizarre fifth inning Friday night

Andrew McCutchen doubled and Brandon Chaves singled to start things
Brett Roneberg flew out to right field, and Harrisburg’s Frank Diaz threw out McCutchen at the plate for a double play
Then with Pearce batting, Chaves was thrown out trying to steal second

So Altoona suffered the highly unusual distinction of having only three at-bats during an inning that started with two hits

Friday night started as a perfect night for baseball, and the Senators made sure it ended that way, beating the Altoona Curve 6-1

The two teams played the first five innings to a standstill, when Altoona scored first on a home run by Adam Boeve
But the Senators came right to tie the game on a solo home run off the bat of Brandon Larson

Wade Robinson worked a two-out walk in the bottom of the seventh brining up pinch hitter Juan Melo
Melo lofted a fly ball down the right field line just inside the foul pole for a pinch-hit two-run home run

In the eighth, the Senators tacked on three more to break the game open
Frank Diaz doubled followed by an intentional walk issued to Larson
Josh Whitesell tripled in Diaz and Larson, then scored himself on a double by Dan Dement

Dan Kolb picked up his first win of the year in relief and Brett Campbell earned his second save

Justin Vaclavik fell to 1-2 with the loss

The two teams play two on Saturday beginning at 5.05pm
Mike Hinckley goes in game one for the Senators and Jim Magrane in game two

One of the Curve’s struggling pitchers took a big step forward Friday night, while another one who had been improving fell back into a rut

Starter Yoslan Herrera, who entered with a 7.13 ERA, gave Altoona a chance to win by allowing just a run on four hits over six innings
It marked his best performance since he had the same line his first start of the season at Akron

Reliever Justin Vaclavik, however, struggled once again as Harrisburg tagged him for five runs in a 6-1 win at Commerce Bank Park

The Senators started the night with the worst record in the minor leagues at 7-24
The win snapped their seven-game losing streak and nine-game skid at home

Vaclavik (1-2) took over for Herrera in a 1-1 game in the seventh and retired the first two batters
He got himself in trouble with a four-pitch walk to Wade Robinson, then compounded the problem with an errant pickoff throw that moved the runner to second base
Pinch-hitter Juan Melo hit the first pitch he saw over the wall in right-center for a 3-1 Senators lead

Things got worse for Vaclavik in the eighth as he gave up a leadoff double to Frank Diaz before intentionally walking Brandon Larson
Josh Whitesell tripled home both runners and scored on Dan DeMent’s double to left to make it 6-1

Vaclavik gave up four runs in one-third of an inning during back-to-back outings in late April, though he had rebounded with three consecutive scoreless appearances

Herrera struck out five, walked two and took a shutout into the sixth

Adam Boeve’s solo homer gave Altoona a 1-0 lead in that frame before the Senators tied it in their half

Dan Kolb (1-0) won in relief for Harrisburg, while Brett Campbell worked two innings for his second save

In a way, the Harrisburg Senators were out of options
They needed to win last night's Eastern League contest against Altoona
The Senators carried the league's worst record into the first game of a four-game series at Commerce Bank Park
They'd lost seven straight overall and nine straight at home
Their most recent outing, a 12-run drubbing against New Britain Wednesday, served as the low point in what's already felt like a long season

But, in front of 4,724 enthusiastic fans on City Island, Harrisburg brought the passion last night, displaying strength in all facets of the game to dump the helpless Curve 6-1

"That's the best game we've played since I've been here, that's for sure" said Senators third baseman Brandon Larson, whose mammoth home run in the sixth inning tied the score

"It felt like a long time coming" said manager Scott Little, whose Senators (8-24) desperately want to ride the momentum into today's doubleheader against Altoona (15-15)

The Senators had plenty of reasons to smile on fireworks night
Baseball being fun again ranks near the top

After engaging in a pitchers' duel that left the score deadlocked at 1 through six innings, Harrisburg seized control in the seventh
Wade Robinson ignited a two-out rally by drawing a walk from reliever Justin Vaclavik (1-2)
Juan Melo followed by lining a 1-0 changeup over the right-field wall for a pinch-hit home run
"I was just trying to put the ball in play" Melo said
"We're trying to pull ourselves together"

The Senators tacked on three runs in the eighth, when Josh Whitesell laced a two-run triple and Dan DeMent followed with an RBI double

Seven of the Harrisburg's eight hits went for extra bases

"I'm not saying we were feeling sorry for ourselves before" Little said "but tonight we had a couple things go our way and it helped elevate us
One thing these guys definitely do every day is come to the ballpark ready to start something
It's just when the game starts, and something goes against us, that doubt started to set in
It started to accumulate and wear on us
But we had a good talk Thursday and made a decision to play the game the right way, to play hard every day, and we'll see what happens"

The key moment in this game probably wasn't Larson's tying bomb to left, his first homer - and on an 0-2 count, no less
Nor was it Melo's clutch shot
As is often the case, strong defense served as Harrisburg's kick in the pants
With the game scoreless in the fifth, Altoona opened the inning with a double by Andrew McCutchen and a misplayed bunt single by Brandon Chaves
Senators right-handed starter Collin Balester, who struck out six but yielded nine hits in six innings, simply didn't field Chaves' bunt, putting runners on first and third with no outs
Former Senators outfielder Brett Roneberg followed by lining a shot to right, caught at the shoelaces by Frank Diaz
Diaz then threw a strike to catcher Devin Ivany at home to double up the speedy McCutchen, who tagged up and tried to score
One pitch later, Ivany gunned down Chaves trying to steal second

"We definitely did a good job buckling down when they got some guys on base" Ivany said
"We made some good plays, and we needed that"

Altoona's Adam Boeve ended the game's scoreless start when he homered to left with two outs in the sixth, but the 1-0 lead didn't last long thanks to Larson

"Little pulled us aside after the New Britain sweep and said we need to raise our games" Larson said
"It's times like these when men get tested, when it's time to prove yourself
And I'll tell you, when Diaz made that catch, I felt like we were going to win this game"

Notes

RHP Dan Kolb (1-0) relieved Balester and pitched a scoreless seventh - he walked one and struck out two before being removed for Melo's pinch-hit in the bottom of the inning
RHP Brett Campbell didn't allow a hit over the last two innings to collect his second save
Whitesell and Larson had two hits each for the Senators
Altoona smashed four doubles off Balester, but not one led to a run
Balester also painfully pitched out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth - Milver Reyes lined a shot off his arm, but Balester picked it up and threw home in time for the force - then he struck out Altoona pitcher Yoslan Herrera
Herrera tossed six strong innings, striking out five in a no-decision