Eastern League All-Star Game 2006
Brett Roneburg steals the show at the Eastern League All-Star game. Will this be the building block that he needs to put his career back on track to the majors?

Dan Hickling
MLNSportsZone.com

ALTOONA, PA. -- How fantastic!  How fitting!

Only those cynics in the house, which counted out to a Blair County Ballpark record crowd of 9,308, would have found something fishy about local favorite Brett Roneberg's Eastern League All Star game heroics.

Roneberg, infielder for the host Altoona Curve, authored a memorable night, batting 3-for-5, and delivering the game winning hit that lifted the Southern Division squad to a 5-3 triumph over the Northern All Stars.

Digging in against Trenton's top flight reliever, Charlie Manning, with two out in the sixth inning, Roneberg whaled a curveball into right field, bringing in a pair of runs and helping the South erase a 3-1 lead that the North had clung to since the top of the second.

The shot produced a full scale eruption in the gleaming ball park that was carved into the Pennsylvania hillside back in 1999.

It also turned the spotlight of the EL showcase on Roneberg, the local hero who hails from Trinity Beach, Australia, a memory to last him a lifetime.

His charge lead the South’s attack, wresting away from the North what would have been its third victory in the fourth year the Eastern League has staged its own game.

It also robbed Trenton second baseman Gabe Lopez, unofficially called the ‘Star of Stars,’ of an MVP award

Lopez, a solid New York Yankee prospect, put on a dazzling display all over the right side of the diamond.

Drawing oohs and ahs from the throng in the bottom of the sixth, he ranged to his right to snag a grounder by Salomon Manriquez of the Harrisburg Senators. As his momentum carried him past second base, Lopez unleashed a rocket to first to nail Manriquez by a step.

"I said, 'I've got to get on top of this,'" said Lopez, who also contributed at the plate, going 1-for-3 with an RBI. "That's how I did it. It was a good play."

He followed that spectacular play with another in the eighth. Hustling to cover first, Lopez snagged a throw barehanded from pitcher Ivan Maldonado of the Binghamton Mets to salvage a botched coverage.

It was enough to draw raves from Northern manager Todd Claus of the Portland Sea Dogs.

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