BROOKLYN, NY-
Getting the offensive production they’ve lacked the past few games at home, the Brooklyn Cyclones, powered by another
amazing performance by Eric Brown, coasted to a 6-0 win over the Aberdeen Ironbirds.
Before tonight’s game, the Cyclones
called up infielders Emmanuel Garcia and Joaquin Rodriguez from the K-Mets, in an effort to get going offensively. The move
definitely paid dividends early, as Garcia led off the game for the Cyclones and reached on a single off Aberdeen
starter Josh Tampa and later scored on a Dustin Martin single that gave Brooklyn an early 1-0 lead.
Tampa continued to get himself in the second, giving up an RBI double to Danny Cummins, stretching the Cyclone lead to 2-0
after just two innings.
Giving up only seven earned runs in eight
starts this season; Eric Brown has easily been the Cyclones best pitcher since he joined the team on July 13. Eager to get
his first win since the All- Star break, the 6’6, 225 pound, Hamlet, North Carolina native came out firing on all cylinders,
striking out seven Ironbirds over seven shutout innings.
“I just tried to do the same thing
I’ve been doing all year,” said Brown. “But I give the defense all the credit tonight, they were clicking.”
“I thought he was immense,”
said Greer. “His pitch count was very low so we just let him go. He’s just been tremendous for us.”
Despite Brown’s amazing performance
tonight, he was helped by great defensive plays by both D.J. Wabick in the fifth and Joe Holden in the seventh, preventing
the Ironbirds from amounting any type of offensive attack.
Great base running and clutch hitting also
contributed to the Cyclones success tonight as Garcia would steal home after Martin moved him over to third, stretching the
lead to 3-0. Jon Schemmel would add a RBI single of his own before the innings end as well, giving the Mets Single-A Affiliate
a 4-0 lead after seven innings of play.
“I came here today with only had
two hours of sleep,” said Garcia, who went 2 for 3 in his Cyclones debut tonight. “They told me I was going to
be the lead off hitter and they just wanted me to try and get on base, so that’s what I did.”
Jose De La Torre would pitch the eighth
inning for Brooklyn and despite walking the first batter he faced, would keep the Ironbirds scoreless.
The Cyclones even managed to add some insurance runs in the bottom the inning, getting a Joe Holden RBI triple and a sacrifice
fly from Garcia, giving them a 6-0 lead. De La Torre would continue to pitch effectively into the ninth and would get Aberdeen
to go down scoreless, giving the boys from Brooklyn a hard earned 6-0 win.
Obviously satisfied with the way the team
came together tonight offensively [13 hits] and defensively, Brown, who lowered his ERA to 1.13 with tonight’s win,
believes tonight’s victory may be enough to get them out of the 2-8 funk they’ve been in there past ten games.
“It was a big game for us tonight,”
said Brown. “I just tried to step up for us and get a win. We put a lot of things together tonight and we definitely
want to build off of that during the next week and rack up some wins.”