BROOKLYN, NY- Looking to win their first series at home this season, the Brooklyn Cyclones continued to get timely hitting and backed up another solid pitching performance by their young staff, leading to a 2-1 win against the Mahoning Valley Scrappers.

Eric Brown would start tonight’s game for Brooklyn, hoping to build on his most recent start on July 20 where he gave up one run in seven innings against the Oneonta Tigers. Tonight, Brown was up to his usual antics, getting four of the first six hitters he faced out via the groundout and wouldn’t give up a hit until the third inning. Despite Brown’s stellar performance, he was helped by a horde of solid defensive plays by Ivan Naccarata and Jon Schemmel that kept runs from coming across the plate.

“The defense did a great job,” said Brown. “When you have a good defense out there, it helps. I didn’t have my best stuff tonight; I knew that, but I was confident because the defense was outstanding. They’ve played great all year.”

Eerily similar to last night’s game, the boys from Coney Island provided their pitching staff with just enough run support to win. Getting an RBI single from first baseman Jeremy Hambrice in the fourth and a RBI triple from Dustin Martin in the fifth, the Cyclones simply held on to the lead, thanks to another lights out performance from their pitching staff.

While Jonathan Schemmel and Martin have been the team’s steadiest offensive threats this season, recent call-up Ivan Naccarata has been heating up at the plate the past two games, hitting a two-run homer last night while adding a single, triple and a run scored tonight . Now with a few games played in Brooklyn under his belt, Naccarata believes he’s ready to be a steady contributor to the team’s offense.

“If I don’t get the job done when there’s runners on base, then I’m not doing my job,” said Naccarata.

Rip Warren would then come out of the bullpen to replace Brown in the seventh, who gave up only three hits through six shutout frames. To his credit, Warren also pitched well, adding two scoreless innings of his own in the seventh and eighth.

“I’m just really trying to come out and show what I can do here and compete every time I go out there,” said Warren. “Tonight, I just tried to continue what Brown had done tonight. He did a great job and we got it done.”

Jose De La Torre would come on to pitch the games final frame for Brooklyn and would give up a run on a Dustin Realini sacrifice fly after surrendering a double and a lead off walk. However, De La Torre managed to regain his composure and struck out Stephen Douglas to end the game, giving the Cyclones a hard fought 2-1 victory.

In addition, the victory also gave the Mets Single-A affiliate a 17-17 record for the season.

While he seemed genuinely pleased with his team’s performance tonight, Cyclones manager George Greer believed that this game showed just how talented his pitching staff, primarily his bullpen is and how instrumental they are to the team’s success.

 “Right now our bullpen is being as efficient as you can have it,” said Greer. “They’re doing a great job and can’t be congratulated enough in my mind.”