Liberty Division All-Stars @ Freedom Division All-Stars

Wednesday, July 13, 2011, Atlantic League All-Star Game

Sovereign Bank Stadium:  York, PA

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REVS SHINE AS FREEDOM DIVISION ALL-STARS ROLL IN FRONT OF LARGEST CROWD IN SOVEREIGN BANK STADIUM HISTORY

Before a Sovereign Bank Stadium record crowd of 8,053 hosting its first Atlantic League All-Star Game, the Freedom Division earned its first win since 2008 with a 7-0 shutout of the Liberty Division in the 2011 Atlantic League All-Star Game on Wednesday night.  Somerset’s Michael Hernandez received the Stephen R. Shilling award as the All-Star Game’s Most Valuable Player, going 2-for-4 with a solo homerun and an RBI triple.

York’s Val Majewski gave the home crowd a thrill, accounting for the game’s first run with a solo homerun to right with one out in the fourth.

Hernandez then connected on an opposite field homer to right leading off the fifth to give the hosts a 2-0 lead.  His triple off the right field fence in the bottom of the seventh ricocheted into the bullpen allowing Jeff Nettles, who had drawn a walk earlier in the inning, to score from first making it 3-0.  Gilberto Mejia later stroked an RBI single into right adding to the lead at 4-0.

Nettles, the league’s season and career RBI leader, applied the exclamation point with a three-run homer over the Arch Nemesis in the bottom of the eighth providing the final margin.

Starter Corey Thurman pitched two scoreless innings in his home park for the Freedom Division.  Lancaster’s Ross Peeples followed with a scoreless third and fourth inning to earn the win.  Seven Freedom Division pitchers combined on the five-hit shutout, the third shutout in Atlantic League All-Star Game history, and the first since 2001 in Newark when the North Division beat the South Division 10-0. 

Notes: Hernandez becomes the first member of the Patriots to win the Most Valuable Player Award.  Long Island’s Matt Esquivel defeated Somerset’s Josh Pressley by going deep in a “blast-off” round to win the AAA Home Run Derby; both players matched each other with three in regulation.  Team Majewski, captained by York’s Val Majewski took the team portion of the event with 21 points; York Catholic High School’s Alex Tucci hit two homeruns accounting for 10 points, while Jason Seitz of the Susquehanna League’s Hallam Express also connected on a pair of homers accounting for eight points, and Majewski himself launched one homerun for three points.  Of the 27 outs recorded in the Freedom Division’s combined shutout, 12 were recorded on groundballs to the middle infielders, including 11 of the final 16 outs.  The two teams combined to play errorless ball with the Freedom Division turning two double plays to the Liberty Division’s one.  The Atlantic League’s second half begins on Friday night, with York travelling to Southern Maryland, while Lancaster hosts Bridgeport, Somerset plays host to Camden, and the Road Warriors trek to Long Island.