Cyclones 2
Tri-City 1
June 19 at MCU Park
The Cyclones are winless no longer! Jay Jabs’ two-run single in the bottom of the seventh provided all the offense Brooklyn needed in a 2–1 win at MCU Park on Sunday.
“We got the most out of the minimum today,” manager Tom Gamboa said. “We only got five hits, but fortunately three of them came in a row.”
Merandy Gonzalez got the start for the Cyclones and pitched shutout ball into the sixth inning. Gonzalez struck out seven, walked one and gave up three hits in five and one-third innings.
The Cyclones offense, which scored three runs in 30 innings against Staten Island, continued to struggle early, going scoreless in the first six innings. Austin Nicely started and pitched four shutout innings for Tri-City. Erasmo Pinales chipped in a clean sheet as well, tossing two shutout innings in the fifth and sixth.
The ValleyCats pushed a run across against Alejandro Castro in the seventh. Carmen Benedetti and Alex De Goti started things with consecutive singles and Randy Cesar’s sacrifice bunt put them in scoring position with one out. Chuckie Robinson’s single scored Benedetti and moved De Goti to third.
Then came one of the key plays in the game. With runners on the corner, Marcos Almonte hit a ball to Castro, who bobbled it and threw home. Almonte’s throw was high, but Ali Sanchez reached up, caught it and started a 1-2-5-3 rundown for the second out.
With runners on second and third, Almonte got Stephen Wrenn looking at strike three to end the inning.
Brooklyn finally broke through in the seventh. Cyclone center fielder Jacob Zanon led off with a single and advanced to third when Enmanuel Zabala singled to left on a well executed hit-and-run.
With third baseman Jay Jabs at the plate, Zabala stole second. Jabs then singled to right to score both runners and give the Cyclones a 2-1 lead. Jabs had struckout in his previous at-bat but more than made up for it.
“The adjustment I made was to not get to two strikes, especially with two runners in scoring position because I would see that curveball again and I didn’t let myself get to two strikes,” Jabs said. “And I was just trying to put the ball to the right side no matter what to get that run in.”
Taylor Henry pitched a 1-2-3 eighth before working around trouble in the ninth.
Benedetti singled down the third base line, but was thrown out trying by Zabala when he tried to stretch it into a double. Then De Goti reached on an error by Jabs but was picked off by Henry and tagged out in a 1-3-6-3-4 rundown.
After issuing a two-out walk, Henry got Robinson on a groundout to second to end the game.
“I gave the pitcher a big thank you and I shook his hand after that and said, ‘Thanks for having my back,’” Jabs said.
The 1–2 Cyclones are back in action on Monday night at MCU Park against Tri-City at 7 pm. The first 2,000 fans will receive a Michael Conforto bobblehead
