It was a huge weekend for the once-languishing Cyclones, as the team won all three of its games to move just one game behind in the race for the New York-Penn League’s lone wild-card berth. The three-game sweep raised the Cyclones win streak to eight games and put the squad three games back of the hated Staten Island Yankees.
Now the team has just six games left — three road games before closing out the season with a three-game homestand on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
Cyclones 3
Tigers 2
Aug. 29 at Keyspan Park
Starter Pedro “No Relation” Martinez resembled his namesake, giving up two runs in just over three innings, but the Cyclone bullpen — and a nine-hit barrage from the offense — was the story of this game.
The Clones got on the board first, plating three runs in the second thanks to Wilmer Flores’s single, Sean Ratliff’s RBI double, Kirk Nieuwenhuis’s 14th double of the year and Seth Williams’s two-run single.
After Martinez got into his trouble in the third, the Cyclone bullpen was lights out. Jeffrey Kaplan (who got the win with four-and-two-thirds innings), Jimmy Johnson and closer Yury Santana gave up just two hits the rest of the way.
Cyclones 5
Renegades 4 (10 inns.)
Aug. 30 at Hudson Valley
Eric Campbell ended this up-and-down nail-biter with a solo shot in the 10th inning, helping the Cyclones avert a disaster in a game they led twice.
Campbell kicked off the scoring in the first with an RBI single and was hit by a pitch in the third and later scored on a groundout.
After the Renegades got a run back, the Cyclones scored two more in the fifth, again started off by Campbell, who walked. Ike Davis knocked in him — and Jordan Abruzzo with a two-out single.
Starter Chris Schwinden promptly gave them both back, giving up a single, a hit batsman, a double-steal and then a two-run double. Usually reliable reliever Roy Merritt let the Renegades tie it up in the seventh, giving up a double and a single.
The Clones should have won the game in regulation, thanks to Josh Satin’s leadoff triple in the ninth, but he was cut down at the plate on a squeeze attempt.
Cyclones 3
Renegades 1
Aug. 31 at Keyspan Park
This game was all Jordan Abruzzo. The star catcher hit two home runs — his fifth and sixth of the year — to give starter Scott Shaw some cushion, though Shaw left the game in the sixth with a no-decision.
Reliever Jimmy Johnson — snubbed as a New York-Penn League All Star! — got his fifth win against no losses with three-and-two-thirds innings of one-hit ball to lower his ERA to 1.08.
Not an all-star? Come on!
