Cyclones 15
Muckdogs 11
Tuesday, Aug. 4, at Batavia
The Cyclones kicked off a three-game series against the Muckdogs in an ugly fashion, but got out with a big W.
Batavia jumped all over starter Wes Wrenn, scoring two in the first on a Wrenn error and then a double. And the Muckdogs got another run in the second on a solo homer.
But Brooklyn’s Luis Rivera got that run back with a dinger of his own in the third.
At that point, the ’Clones and the ’Dogs went toe-to-paw. Batavia got two in the bottom of the fourth to take a 5-1 lead, but then the Cyclones turned it on, with one in the fifth on a two-out Rivera double, and four in the sixth.
Those key runs came in on a walk, back-to-back singles by Robbie Shields and Juan Centano, a hit-batsman, a Jake Eigsti single, a passed ball and a groundout.
That got Wrenn off the hook, though his linescore was a horror show: 4-2/3 innings, 11 hits, four earned runs.
Batavia regained the lead in the bottom of the frame with another solo homer and a SAC fly later in the inning off new reliever Bobby Gagg (not a good name for a reliever!).
But Brooklyn took a 9-7 lead with three runs in the seventh, all of them coming in on Alex Gregory’s bomb.
Batavia got another run back in the bottom of the inning, but the Cyclones got that one back in the eighth, thanks to an error, one of four Muckdog miscues on the night.
But the Cyclones put this one on ice with five runs in the ninth, which started with a Robbie Shields double, then featured two walks, a Sam Honeck SAC fly, a hit batter, a Tyler Vaughn RBI single, and a bases-loaded, two-out triple by Nicholas Santomauro.
That doesn’t mean that Batavia didn’t make it interesting — scoring three more runs in the bottom of the ninth off reliever Mike Powell.
The Cyclones 14 hits were the most the team had gotten in weeks. Five Clones had multi-hit games. The win, credited to Gagg, put the Cyclones back on top of the McNamara Division by four games over the hated Staten Island Yankees, who lost on Tuesday night.
There are just 30 games left to play.
