A few notes from the New York-Penn League All-Star Game in Aberdeen (North wins)

ABERDEEN, Md. - The 11th annual New York-Penn League All-Star Game is set for tonight at 7:35 p.m. at Leidos Field at Ripken Stadium. The short season Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds are hosting the game for the second time.

Tonight, the three-division league is split into North and South teams. But when Aberdeen hosted previously in 2006 teams from American League affiliates beat the National League clubs 4-1 in front of 6.958 fans. In that game, Aberdeen's Miguel Abreu started at third base and Chris Vinyard at first. Then IronBirds closer, Luis Lebron, got the save in the game.

The IronBirds are represented tonight by shortstop Ricardo Andujar and right-hander reliever Ryan Meisinger, who the Orioles drafted this year in the 11th round out of Radford.

In 12 games, Meisinger is 0-0 with a 2.81 ERA and seven saves in eight chances. Over 16 innings, he has allowed 10 hits with four walks and 22 strikeouts.

Meisinger grew up going to Orioles games at Camden Yards. He is from Dunkirk, Md., and played at Northern High School in Calvert County. In 2012, he played in the Brooks Robinson High School All-Star Game at Camden Yards. Meisinger is expected to be the last pitcher used tonight by the South team and they obviously hope he'll be on the mound with the lead at the end to close it out.

I asked him about getting drafted by his hometown team, the Orioles.

"It was a dream come true just to get drafted, but it was icing on the cake to get drafted by my hometown team. Have a lot of support from my family and friends who now get to see me play close to home," Meisinger said.

"I grew up going to Camden Yards all the time and going to Bowie Baysox games, which is about 20 minutes from my home."

In college this year, Meisinger led the nation in saves with 17 for Radford.

"I'm definitely a fastball-slider pitcher. I pitch off my fastball, and if I get a two-strike count, I try to put the hitters away with my slider," he said.

Andujar, from the Dominican Republic, just turned 23. He was released by the Boston Red Sox and signed by the Orioles May 31, 2014. Not long after, he made the Dominican Summer League All-Star team last summer and this is his second straight All-Star game.

For the IronBirds, he is batting .287 with two homers and 16 RBIs in 44 games. An athletic shortstop with a solid arm, Andujar has hit .326 against left-handed pitching and .314 in 23 games in July.

"He is having a great season," Aberdeen manager Luis Pujols said of Andujar. "He has been very consistent all year against left and right-handers. He's a switch-hitter and always seems to make good contact. Also been very impressed with his defense."

Tonight, the North Team will be comprised of players from Auburn, Batavia, Connecticut, Hudson Valley, Lowell, Tri-City and Vermont. The South Team will be represented by players from Aberdeen, Brooklyn, Mahoning Valley, State College, Staten Island, West Virginia and Williamsport.

Aberdeen's coaching staff will lead the South team with the club managed by Pujols. He will be assisted by pitching coach Justin Lord, hitting coach Calvin Pickering, coach Sammie Starr, trainer Marty Brinker and strength coach Creede Simpson.

Tonight the New York-Penn League will induct Don Mattingly, Jim Leyland and former Geneva Cubs owner Paul Velte into its Hall of Fame.

Leyland, who played for the 1965 Jamestown Tigers, hit .237 in 82 games as a catcher and third baseman. Mattingly played first base and outfield for the 1979 Oneonta Yankees, where he hit .349 with 31 RBIs in 53 games. Velte began his 39-year association with the New York-Penn League in 1976 when he was appointed to Geneva Community Baseball Board of Directors later serving as vice-president and president. He purchased the team in 1988 and moved it to Williamsport, Pa., in 1994. He remained owner/president of Williamsport through 2014.

The final: The North team scored three runs in the first inning tonight and made that stand up for a 4-2 win over the South in Aberdeen. Dexture McCall of Tri-City had a two-run double in that inning for the winners. McCall got the Top Star award. Aberdeen shortstop Andujar went 1-for-2 with an infield single. IronBirds right-hander Ryan Meisinger pitched a 1-2-3 top of the ninth. The game attracted 3,622 to Ripken Stadium.