Before falling in the championship round, the Cyclones valiantly vanquished the Jamestown Jammers in the league semi-final series after losing the first game on the road upstate.
In Game 2, which may go down as one of the most-exciting wins in Cyclone history, Brooklyn beat Jamestown 9–8 after rallying twice in the late innings to tie the score, sending the game into extra frames — where Juan Centeno’s monstrous double off the centerfield wall set up a walk-off wild pitch.
The lead changed hands nine times on the night.
Jamestown had gotten on the board first, with a run on a groundout in the second inning, but the Clones tied the score in the bottom of the frame on Jeff Flagg’s double and a subsequent groundout.
Jamestown added another run off starter Angel Cuan on back-to-back doubles in the fifth, but the Cyclones exploded for four runs in the bottom of the inning.
Centeno led off with a double and scored on James Schroeder’s single. After a single by Darrell Ceciliani put men on first and third, J.B. Brown’s sacrifice fly plated Schroeder. Cory Vaughn then doubled home Ceciliani, and later scored on a throwing error on a ground ball by Flagg.
When Cuan was replaced by reliever Johan Figuereo to start the eighth, Jamestown erupted for four runs.
But the Cyclones tied it up again in the eighth, thanks to an infield hit by Brown that trickled just far enough away from the third baseman to let Ceciliani charge home from second.
Reliever Hamilton Bennett promptly gave up a run but Joe Bonfe and Cherry singled, putting men on first and third with one out — and Centeno promptly delivered the game-tying sacrifice fly.
In the end, Centeno played the hero’s role in the 12th inning with a blast to centerfield that was inches away from a walk-off dinger. After a sacrifice bunt, pinch runner ZeErika McQueen scored on the wild pitch.
In Game 3, the Cyclones won 6–4 in another nail-biter.
After the game, the bubbly was flowing — though it wasn’t traditional Champagne, but Kedem sparkling grape juice, a substitute that was either in honor of the Jewish New Year, which began just before first pitch, or the fact that several Cyclones are below the drinking age.
