Staten Island 3
Cyclones 2
June 17 at MCU Park
Opening Day turned into Groundhog Day as the Cyclones offense scored two runs in a 20-inning loss to the hated Staten Island Yankees.
“This reflects last year all over again,” said Cyclones skipper Tom Gamboa. “Great pitching. I mean we ran eight pitchers out there that really did a great job, and our offense bordered somewhere tonight between hopeless and inept.”
Things actually got off to a good start as Enmanuel Zabala hit a leadoff homer off Adonis Rosa.
Gabriel Llanes tossed three shutout innings before the Evil Empire of the New York-Penn League got to him in the fourth. Mandy Alvarez’s run-scoring double scored Kane Sweeney on a well executed hit-and-run. After Dalton Blaser’s single moved Alvarez to third, Kendall Coleman’s sacrifice fly put Staten Island up 2–1.
Brooklyn came right back as Brandon Brosher doubled with two outs and scored when Darryl Knight followed with a triple.
The next good scoring chance came in the eighth inning. With David Sosebee on the mound for the Yankees, the Cyclones loaded the bases on walks for Brosher. Southpaw reliever Justin Kamplain came into pitch and struck Brosher out on a 3–2 pitch.
As the strikeouts and zeroes piled up, the Cyclones pitching staff was terrific. After Llanes gave up two runs in five innings, Taylor Henry, Nicco Blank, Joseph Zanghi and Gabriel Feliz all pitched two shutout innings. Alejandro Castro and Adrian Almeida worked a scoreless inning apiece.
The Friday night fireworks went off by Coney Island as the game continued, but not on the field where the teams failed to score.
Then Dillon Becker, the final reliever available for the Cyclones, threw two shutout innings. In the 18th inning, with no more pitchers to use, Gamboa called on infielder Franklin Correa to pitch.
“We literally went down the bench asking guys who had pitched before they had signed, and we had two,” Gamboa said.
Even Correa pitched two shutout innings as the game moved into Saturday morning and was knocking on the 1 am curfew which would have meant suspending the game.
Infielder Dionis Paulino came in to pitch the 20th inning. He walked the first two hitters so wildly that pitching coach Billy Bryk went to the mound to talk to Paulino.
After a third straight walk, Ricardo Ferreira’s sacrifice fly gave the Yankees a 3–2 lead. In the bottom of the inning, the Cyclones were sent down in order against Claudio Custodio, who pitched three innings to get the win.
“Don’t ask me what would’ve happened if it would’ve gone another inning,” Gamboa said. “You hate to forfeit a game but I would never pitch a prospect at any rate so I’m glad it didn’t come to that because you don’t want to just walk off but we literally didn’t have anyone else to put out there.”
The winless Cyclones play tonight in Staten Island at 7 pm and look to spoil the home opener for the Evil Empire of the New York-Penn League.
