Hudson Valley 6
Connecticut 4
June 25 at MCU Park
The Cardiac Clones ninth inning comeback fell short in a 6–4 loss to Hudson Valley on Saturday at MCU Park.
The Renegades scored three times in the first off Brooklyn starter Joel Huertas.
Angel Perez led off with a single, moved to second on a passed ball, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on a single by Garrett Whitley. After Jim Haley singled, Nathaniel Lowe singled to center to make it 2–0. Haley took third as Enmanuel Zabala’s throw hit Haley as he slid into third, and Lowe took second.
Haley scored on a Jose Rojas groundout to put the Renegades on top 3–0. Hudson Valley had a chance to break the game open but with the bases loaded and two outs, but Huertas got Joseph Astacio swinging to end the inning.
Cyclones skipper Tom Gamboa said Huertas faltered early and was never able to quite recover, particularly after giving up the single to Perez.
“We talk a lot about when you see a hitter swinging late on your pitches, there’s no need to show your whole arsenal of pitches to the very first hitter so the other eight guys in the lineup can see what you’ve got,” Gamboa said. “After getting ahead 0–2, I was kind of shocked when the 0–2 pitch was a changeup, and of course the pitch was whacked into centerfield by a guy that was late on his fastball.”
The Cyclones managed to answer back in the second. Blake Tiberi led off with a walk and moved to second on a Brandon Brosher single. Both runners moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch. Darryl Knight’s groundout to short scored Tiberi and moved Brosher to third. Then Hengelbert Rojas drove in Brosher with a sacrifice fly to right as Brosher slid under the tag of Jose Rojas to cut the lead to 3–2.
In the top of the fourth, Huertas surrendered two singles and plunked a batter to load the bases with nobody out. It looked like Huertas would get out of the jam when he struck out the next two batters, but then the southpaw hit Nathaniel Lowe to force in a run.
Jose Rojas followed up with a liner to left which Hengelbert Rojas dove for, but couldn’t come up with, scoring two more runs.
Huertas gave up six runs, all earned, in four innings. The trio of Crismatt, Cornish and McGeorge shut out Hudson Valley for the final five innings and gave Brooklyn a chance to come back.
Brandon Larson held the Cyclones scoreless in the seventh and eighth, but struggled in the ninth. Three singles brought Nick Sergakis to the plate with the bases loaded and one out.
Sergakis hit one in the hole between third and short, but Hudson Valley shortstop Bill Pujois snagged it and flipped it to second to limit the damage.
With the score 6–3, Colby Woodmansee came to the plate with runners on the corners. The Brooklyn designated hitter singled to right and moved into scoring position when right fielder Angel Perez made an ill-advised throw to third.
Noel Rodriguez came in to get the final out and picked up a one-out save when he got Blake Tiberi to ground out to second on a 3–1 pitch.
The 3–6 Cyclones will host Hudson Valley at 4 pm tomorrow. Jose Reyes will be leading off and playing third base.
UPS AND DOWNS
Nick Sergakis picked up another hit as well as his fourth stolen base of the young season.
Designated hitter Colby Woodmansee was the only Cyclone with two hits on Saturday and now has a .368 batting average.
Nabil Crismatt struck out four in three innings of relief. Gary Cornish and Austin McGeorge both struck out one in an inning of scoreless relief.
