BROOKLYN, NY- After an exhausting 15-inning
marathon last night, where they pulled off a 1-0 win over Aberdeen, the Brooklyn Cyclones would fail to continue their winning
ways, with a questionable call and costly errors in the 8th sealing their fate in a 6-4 loss to the Ironbirds.
Unlike last night, where the boys from
Brooklyn needed four innings to get two hits, the Cyclones would get two hits in the first from Joe Holden and Jon Schemmel,
before Aberdeen starter Kyle Schmidt’s wild pitch would score Holden; tying the score at one a piece, after Cyclone
starter Jorge Reyes gave up an early run in the first .
Tonight the Cyclones season-long hitting
woes would continue and they’d only smack six more hits during the rest of the game, giving Reyes (five innings pitched,
seven hits, one walk), who threw four scoreless innings after a shaky first, virtually any run support before he was replaced
by Nick Abel in the fifth.
Despite the early offensive output by both
teams, Schmidt, like Reyes, would also settle down, keeping the score 1-1 through 5 2/3 innings, before being replaced by
Ironbirds left-hander Brett Bordes. Bordes would pick up right were Schmidt left off, getting Jeremy Hambrice to ground out
with Elvis Cruz on first and the score would stay 1-1 through six.
The bullpen continued to keep Brooklyn
in the game until the eighth, as Abel would throw two scoreless innings, before running into trouble, leaving runners on first
and second with nobody out for Tim Haines.
Haines would get Aberdeen right fielder
Paul Winterling to ground out, but Cyclones third baseman Jon Malo was forced to go to first, putting runners on second and
third with one out. The next batter, Joel Pacheco, would hit a grounder to first baseman Tim Grogan, who tried to stop Aberdeen’s
Chris Vinyard from scoring from third and after a controversial call from home plate umpire Matt Cunningham, the score was
2-1.
Unfortunately for Haines, the Cyclones
defense would commit two errors and wouldn’t be able to get their hands on a few hard hit ground balls and all of a
sudden they were down 6-1 with only two innings left to play.
Brooklyn would have an opportunity
to come back in the bottom of the eighth however, as last night’s hero Jon Malo would stroke a double down the left
field line. The next batter, Tim Grogan would draw a walk and Jeremy Hambrice would then single, leaving the bases loaded
for Jason Jacobs with one out.
Aberdeen
manager Andy Etchebarren would then give Bordes the hook, giving the ball to right-hander Luis Lebron, who hadn’t given
up an earned-run all season. Lebron wouldn’t give up any earned runs during the inning, but he would walk Jacobs, scoring
Malo, while surrendering a sacrifice fly to Cyclones shortstop Luis Rivera, scoring Grogan and after a Joe Holden strikeout, Brooklyn
was down 6-3.
Rip Warren
would make his first appearance of the season and would throw a scoreless inning in the ninth, but it wasn’t without
drama as he would unintentionally hit Corey Shafer in the back with a slider. Shafer, who was ejected from last night’s
game for arguing a home plate call and trying to start a fight with Cyclones catcher Jason Jacobs, tried to instigate a fight
with Warren and was almost ejected again, but wisely calmed down, stealing second
base before the end of the inning.
Lebron continued to pitch in the ninth
for Aberdeen and gave up his first earned run of the season on a two-out solo
homer by Elvis Cruz that would cut the deficit to 6-4. Lebron would get into more trouble in the inning, walking Malo and
putting the tying run at the plate in the form of Grogan. Unfortunately, last night’s magic wasn’t with the Cyclones,
as Lebron would strike out Grogan looking to end the game.
The loss would bring the team’s record
to 2-9, but Cyclones Manager George Greer was positive the team would shake the loss off.
“I think the guys battled,”
said Greer. “One bad inning doomed them and I think if you’ve watched the team, you see that we’re getting
better and better.”
