Lake Monsters 6
Cyclones 4 (Game 1)
Lake Monsters 2
Cyclones 3 (Game 2)
Wednesday, Sept. 1 at MCU Park
The Cyclones dropped the first game of a doubleheader in ugly fashion, giving up six unanswered runs over the last three innings — and you can blame shakey reliever Wes Wrenn.
The Clones scored two runs in the first inning, the first on Cory Vaughn’s sacrifice fly — his team-record 51st RBI of the season. But on the next at-bat, Jeff Flagg knocked in a run to tie Vaughn for the team record.
Then, in the third, Vaughn got another RBI on a groundout to set a new single-season team record. He broke that record with an RBI single in the fifth inning, his third RBI on the night.
But starting pitcher Chris Hilliard, who was nearly flawless all night, got into trouble in the sixth, giving up two runs. Then Wrenn blew the save by giving up the two tying runs in the seventh on a double — and then got the loss by giving up the two winning runs in the extra inning on two singles.
In the nightcap, the Cyclones turned the tables on their Vermont rivals, scoring two runs to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth, and then winning it in the eighth.
The game was a pitchers’ duel until Vermont scored a run in the fifth. The Lake Monsters would have gotten more, but right fielder Will Cherry gunned down a runner trying to tag up from third.
After a Vermont solo shot made the score 2–0, the Clones stormed back, though both runs scored on an error.
In the eighth, Joe Bonfe led off with a single. Inevitably, Cherry bunted him over, but a throwing error by Vermont pitcher Wilson Eusebio allowed Bonfe to come around with the winning run.
