The Result
Senators - 9 runs to 6

The Curve - Year-to-Date
29 wins and 29 losses

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

Brett's at-bats
First plate appearance
Righthanded pitcher
Bases empty - two down
Called strike
Called strike
Foul ball - on the ground towards the first base coach's box
"There's a chopper that bounces over the pitcher's glove but it's collected by the second-baseman who throws on 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
"That ball is bounced softly across the diamond and it's fielded on two hops by the second-baseman who completes the out at first base and the Senators have 1pitch-1out to start the innings"
Ground out to second base - 4 to 3
Third plate appearance
Righthanded pitcher
Runner at second base - none down
"Brett scorches that ball right at the Senators' first-baseman!!! ... and it eats him up and goes into foul territory!!! ... the runner from second base is rounding third base and is going for home ... and he is in there without a throw!!! ... that was heads-up baserunning and good coaching by Manager Tim Leiper at third base ... the ball was hit very hard by Roneberg and that made it a very tough play for the first-baseman ... that will go down as an infield hit and a run batted in for Brett"
Infield single to first base - 1 x RBI
Out at second base on a fielder's choice hit by the next Curve hitter
Fourth plate appearance
Top of the seventh innings!!!
The Curve were behind one run to three!!!
Righthanded pitcher------T.J. Nall--
Runners at first and second base - one down
"Brett has jumped on the first pitch he sees"
"It is driven high and deep into left-centrefield!!!"
"The fielders are going back ... but they can give it up ... because that ball is 'outa here'!!!"
"It bounces off the top of the second wall!!!"
"Brett has picked up his third home run of the season along with three runs batted in!!!"
"Brett Roneberg has given the Curve a four runs to three lead here in the seventh innings!!!"
HOME RUN - 3 x RBI's - 1 x R------(click here for more details)
Fifth plate appearance
Righthanded pitcher
Led off the innings
Ball
Ball - fast ball - high and outside
Ball
Called strike - "With the Curve trailing by three runs here in the top of the ninth innings, Roneberg was taking all the way and that pitch caught the outside corner"
Ball
Walk
Advanced to second base on defensive indifference
Advanced to third base on a wild pitch
Left stranded at the end of the innings

At the end of the Game
2 hits from 4 at-bats - HOME RUN, single, 4 x runs batted in, 1 x run scored, 1 x walk

Heard during the game

(01) During the Post-Game Show, the commentator announced that - "Brett Roneberg is today's Curve Player of the Game ... he reached base three times, drove in four runs, and belted his third home run of the season"

Email from Brett

Game Reports

The Harrisburg Senators matched a five-run Curve seventh inning with five runs of their own in the bottom of the frame and went on to a 9-6 win over Altoona Saturday night at Commerce Bank Park

Brett Roneberg's three-run homer capped the Curve's five-run outburst in the top half of the seventh and gave Altoona their first lead of the game at 6-3
The longball was the Australia native's third of the season

However, the Senators grabbed the lead back in the bottom of the inning against relievers Dave Davidson and Romulo Sanchez
Davidson started the inning and walked three batters to help Harrisburg load the bases
Sanchez entered the game and promptly allowed a two-run single to Tony Blanco and a three-run homer to John Suomi, which provided Harrisburg with an 8-6 lead

Sanchez (2-2) gave up another run to the Senators in the bottom of the eighth and was tagged with the loss for the Curve (29-29), who have lost just three times in their last 13 games

T.J. Nall (2-8) was charged with six runs on 12 hits over seven innings of work, but stayed in the game long enough to earn the win for Harrisburg (21-40)
Both of his victories this season have come against Altoona

Four Curve players - Roneberg, Andrew McCutchen, Steven Pearce and Brian Peterson - finished the game with two hits
For Pearce, his 2-for-5 performance extended his team-high hitting and on-base streaks to nine and 16 games, respectively

The two clubs will play the deciding game of their three-game weekend series Sunday afternoon at Commerce Bank Park
Altoona will send right-hander Luis Munoz (6-2, 3.29) to the mound in search of his team-leading seventh win against Washington Nationals' left-hander Mike O'Connor, who will making a major league injury rehabilitation start
First pitch is set for 1.05pm

John Suomi's three-run homer in a five-run seventh inning powered Harrisburg to a 9-6 win over visiting Altoona on Saturday

Tony Blanco ripped a two-run single before Suomi clubbed his second homer of the season to left field to give the Senators (21-40) an 8-6 lead

Cristian Guerrero smacked a two-run blast, his sixth, in the fourth for Harrisburg

T.J. Nall (2-8) won for the second time in three starts, despite surrendering six runs on 12 hits and three walks with four strikeouts over seven innings

Brett Campbell pitched around a pair of walks in a scoreless ninth for his seventh save

Curve reliever Romulo Sanchez (2-2) was charged with three runs on four hits in 1-1/3 frames

Starter Alay Soler yielded three runs on five hits in five innings

Brett Roneberg drove in four runs for Altoona (29-29), three with his third homer of the season in the seventh

On a perfect night for baseball, the Senators rallied from a 6-3 deficit to defeat the Altoona Curve 9-6 in front of the largest crowd to see a game this season

TJ Nall started and was the winner in front of 6,098 fans
He left trailing 6-3 in the when Frank Diaz pinched hit for him, and by the time the Senators took the field in the eighth, the Sens had an 8-6 lead

Harrisburg scored first on a two-run home run off the bat of Cristian Guerrero in the fourth inning

Seth Bynum then doubled in Steve Mortimer for a third run in the fourth to give the Sens a 3-0 lead

But then Altoona came back, scoring a single run in sixth, then a five-run seventh inning highlighted by a three-run home run by Brett Roneberg

On Saturday night though, the Senators weren't going to be denied
Altoona relieve Dave Davidson walked three Senators, and after a couple of fielder's choices, the Senators had the bases loaded and two outs for Tony Blanco
Blanco delivered a two-run single to center to trim the lead to 6-5
John Suomi followed the single with a three-run home run of his own to put the Sens on top 8-6
Harrisburg made it 9-6 on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Diaz scoring Mortimer

Brett Campbell worked out of trouble in the ninth for his seventh save of the season

On Sunday afternoon the Senators and Curve wrap up their three-game series and the Sens mini three game homestand at 1.05pm
Harrisburg sends LH Mike O'Connor to the mound making a rehab start for the Nationals and RH Luis Munoz goes to the hill for the Curve

Reliever Dave Davidson did the one thing the Curve didn’t want him to do Saturday night
Altoona’s offense charged back from a 3-1 deficit by scoring five runs in the seventh inning against Harrisburg
All that momentum disappeared, however, when Davidson couldn’t find the strike zone in the bottom half of the inning
Davidson walked the bases loaded to give the Senators the opening they needed
He then departed in favor of Romulo Sanchez, who couldn’t clean up the mess as Harrisburg scored five runs and rallied for a 9-6 win at Commerce Bank Park

Tony Blanco singled off Sanchez to score a pair of runs and bring the Senators within 6-5
John Suomi followed by crushing the first pitch he saw from Sanchez (2-2) for a three-run homer that put Harrisburg on top to stay

Davidson, a member of the Pirates’ 40-man roster, has had control problems this season, walking 19 in 29-2/3 innings

The Curve had rallied to take a 4-3 lead on Brett Roneberg’s three-run homer in the seventh
Brian Peterson added a two-run double for what looked to be enough insurance against Harrisburg, the EL’s worst team at 21-40

Senators starter T.J. Nall (2-8) won despite giving up six runs on 12 hits in seven innings
Both of his wins have come against Altoona

Steven Pearce extended his hitting streak to nine games for the Curve
He had driven in a run in six consecutive games, tying a franchise record, but that streak came to an end

Washington Nationals lefty Mike O’Connor, on a rehab assignment with Harrisburg, will start Sunday against the Curve
O’Connor, 3-8 with a 4.80 ERA for Washington in 2006, is coming back from elbow surgery and will be making his first appearance at any level this season

John Suomi didn't need to impress his parents and best friend
After all, their love and friendship are unconditional
But Harrisburg's Canadian catcher certainly wasn't complaining about his performance last night, as he drilled a three-run homer to help the Senators rally past the Altoona Curve 9-6 before a season-high crowd of 6,098 at Commerce Bank Park

With his folks in from Toronto and best friend Shawn Hill in attendance, Suomi belted his two-out blast in the bottom of the seventh to hand Harrisburg (21-40) an 8-6 advantage
He finished 2-for-3, scoring a pair of runs

"Look at you, you're a superstar" Hill said while standing next to Suomi's locker after the game
Hill, the former Senators right-handed pitcher who also grew up in Toronto, is currently on the Washington Nationals' disabled list
The big league club's best pitcher this year, Hill was 3-3 with a 2.70 ERA before arm soreness sidelined him in mid-May
He said he's scheduled to begin playing catch this week
Between rehab workouts, it's a welcome change of pace watching Suomi deliver in the clutch

The Senators' five-run outburst in the bottom of the seventh was necessitated by a sloppy top of the inning
With right-hander T.J. Nall cruising through six innings, holding onto a 3-1 lead, Harrisburg unraveled
Jason Bowers grounded a one-out single to center
Andrew McCutchen followed by blooping another single to shallow center, a ball that normally would have been caught except for a slow jump by center fielder Sheldon Fulse
Had Fulse made the catch, Bowers was a dead duck at first base, as he was running on the play
Instead, former Senator Brett Roneberg drilled a three-run homer to left-center, handing the Curve (29-29) a 4-3 lead
Brian Peterson later lined a two-run double to right-center to extend the advantage to 6-3

"We gave them five or six outs that inning" Senators manager Scott Little said
"Those are the reasons we've been in the situations we've been in this year"

But it was far from over

"Everyone knows we can come back from three runs" Suomi said
"We've done it before"

Curve lefty Dave Davidson, another Canadian, walked the bases loaded with two outs in the seventh
Tony Blanco then greeted reliever Romulo Sanchez with a two-run single up the middle before Suomi's second homer of the season

Steve Mortimer doubled and scored on Diaz's sacrifice fly in the eighth to add an insurance run

Nall (2-8) "vultured" the win, as he described it, despite surrendering 12 hits and six earned runs in seven innings

Josh Hall pitched a perfect eighth, and Brett Campbell survived a pair of walks and a wild pitch in the ninth to notch his seventh save

"You would think that, by allowing six runs, Nall pitched badly" Little said
"But, good Lord, he didn't"

Both of Nall's victories this season have come against Altoona
He admitted to a five-minute period of frustration after the seventh, but he regained his composure and cheered the offense during the comeback
"I came in the clubhouse frustrated, kicking some stuff around" he said
"I dug them into a hole, and I wanted to be out there to help them work their way out of it"

Cristian Guerrero's two-run homer and Bynum's RBI double gave the Senators a 3-0 lead in the fourth

Notes
LHP Mike O'Connor, who was 3-8 with a 4.80 ERA as a rookie last year with the Nationals, will make a rehab start for the Senators today - he's slated for roughly 50 pitches, with originally scheduled starter John Lannan ready to back him up

Altoona (Double-A, 29-29) lost, 9-6, at Harrisburg (Nationals)

Leftfielder Brett Roneberg hit a three-run home run and had four RBIs

Centerfielder Andrew McCutchen went 2 for 5 and scored twice

Relief pitcher Romulo Sanchez allowed three runs on four hits in 1-1/3 innings for the blown save and loss