Brooklyn Cyclones: And Then There Were Ten

From the desk of:  THE SURF AVENUE SLUGGERS

Cyclones Lead Series 2-1

I - CON 1; BRK 0

II - BRK 4; CON 0

III - BRK 5; CON 0

SATURDAY

Brooklyn Cyclones

vs.

Connecticut Tigers

FROM

THE DODD

With just ten games left in the regular season both the McNamara Division and Wild Card remain up for grabs.  On Thursday Brooklyn bows to the Connecticut Tigers in a rain shortened five inning game.  First baseman Joe Genord records the Cyclones lone hit of the night.  Meanwhile starter Frank Valentino is once again the hard luck loser upon yielding just one earned run on four hits and three walks with three strikeouts through 4.2 innings pitched.  Heavy storms continue through the evening postponing game two of a scheduled double-header (stemming from yet another 7/22 PPD).

On Friday the teams finally play two at the Dodd where pitching wins the day.  Brooklyn hurlers join forces on back to back shutout efforts over the Tigers yielding a mere six total hits through 18 innings pitched.

Michel Otanez starts game one throwing 4.1 innings of scoreless one-hit ball with three walks and three strikeouts.  Mitch Ragan enters in relief of Otanez, allowing no runs on two hits with a strikeout.  Josh Hejka then pitches a scoreless ninth.  Ragan earns his second win of the season to go along with a 2.32 ERA.  Otanez lowers his ERA to a 2.49 mark.  Brooklyn gets runs batted in from Luke Ritter, and Joe Genord, and Wilmer Reyes hits his fifth home run of the season en route to a 4-0 Cyclones final.

• Game one marks Edgardo Alfonzo's 100th victory as manager of the Cyclones.

In game two Brooklyn and Norwich duel through six scoreless innings before the Cyclones finally break through for five runs in the top half of the seventh.  Tigers starter Jack O'Loughlin stymies Cyclones batters through six full, yielding just three hits and two walks while fanning six.  Coming off Wednesday's NYPL all-star game, Brooklyn starter Dan Goggin is limited to a pair of innings during which he allows just one hit, but walks three and fans four.  Hunter Parsons pitches two innings in relief of Goggin allowing just one hit and one walk while fanning six.  Jared Biddy is then tasked with pitching the final three innings.  He faces nine batters, yields one hit, walks none and fans four in completing Brooklyn's second straight whitewashing of the Tigers.  The Cyclones three combine for a three-hit, 14-strikeout effort.  Biddy now sports a stellar 0.40 ERA through eleven appearances and 22.1 innings pitched with 28 strikeouts.  Ranfy Adon is big man on campus going 3 for 3 with a run batted in.  Wilmer Reyes drives in his 25th run of the season.

The Cyclones enter Saturday's McNamara Division race tied with Aberdeen in second place one game behind first place Hudson Valley.  Meanwhile Brooklyn and Aberdeen are now tied for the wild card.  Staten Island loses their second straight to Aberdeen, getting limited to just six hits and no runs against the Ironbirds on Friday.  In fact Aberdeen are winners of three straight.

• New York Penn League