Staten Island Yankees 7
Cyclones 2
June 16 at MCU Park
A tense pitchers’ duel turned into a comedy of errors as the Brooklyn Cyclone defense imploded leading to a five-run loss and a split of the Opening Weekend series with the hated Staten Island Yankees.
Cyclones hurler Carlos Valdez and his Yankee counterpart Jordan Cote dueled through four innings, each giving up just two runs.
Cyclones manager Tom “Captain Hook” Gamboa initially looked like a genius when he went to his pen in the fifth, bringing in Gaither Bumgardner who shut down a potent Yankee line-up before succumbing to bad fielding in the seventh, when two runs scored on one error, breaking the tie.
That opened the floodgates, and the Baby Bombers tagged on two more runs in the eighth, and an embarrassing run in the ninth when Clones reliever Edioglis Villasmil did the unthinkable and balked in a Yankee.
Left fielder Joe Tuschak led the Cyclones with three hits, including a double, and one run. Amed Rosario had the Mini-Mets only run batted in, but it came on a sacrifice fly double play. Yeesh.
The Cyclones play Cal Ripkin’s Aberdeen Ironbirds tonight at MCU Park at 7 pm. Go for the baseball, stay for the Thunderbolt.
