By Matt John
Cyclones 6
Vermont 1
June 21 in Vermont
The Lake Monsters felt the “Wraith” of Brooklyn!
Thomas McIlwraith threw five innings of two-hit ball, helping the Cyclones rebound from a horrible Opening Night loss against the hated Staten Island Yankees, and giving the team its first win of the season.
McIlwraith, the spelling of whose name is going to be murder on reporters and editors alike, got the win by not allowing a run while striking out four, ending the Clones losing streak at one.
The Clones took an early lead in the second when Jeremy Wolf’s run-scoring single plated Scott Manea, but didn’t score again until the sixth when Jose Maria — the goat of the home opener, when he grounded into three double plays — hit a solo dinger in the top of the sixth, making it 2–0.
But in the bottom of the inning, Cyclones’ mistakes turned into Lake Monster runs as two throwing errors by second baseman Franklin Correa handed Vermont a run.
The Cyclones responded in the seventh, when Reed Gamache doubled to center field, scoring Jose Miguel Medina and upping the score to 3–1. The next inning, Correa made up for his earlier errors on the field by knocking in Medina to make the score 4–1.
Jeremy Wolf added on to the Cyclones lead in the top of the ninth with a single that scored both Medina and Anthony Churlin.
The victory got the Cyclones to .500 with a 1–1 record good enough for second place in the McNamara Division — one game behind the Evil Empire of the New York–Penn League, the Yankees. The Clones hope to get over .500 for the first time this season when our boys again take on Vermont in the land of Bernie Sanders tonight at 7:05.
