What a weekend it was for the Cyclones, what with a series victory over the Aberdeen Ironbirds and a triumphant (and healthy) rehab start by Met starter Oliver Perez on Sunday night. Read it all here:
Cyclones 9
Ironbirds 2
Friday, June 26, at Aberdeen
Mammoth bats and strong arms continued to be the formula, as the division-leading Cyclones won their fifth straight.
Ralph Henriquez got the Brooks on the first in the second with a solo shot. And the Cyclones really melted the Ironbirds with three more in the fifth — two of which scored on Luis Nieves’s first homer of the year.
Two more runs came in during the eighth, thanks to a Matt Bouchard SAC fly and a wild pitch.
Nieves added two more RBIs to his night with a bases-loaded single in the ninth. Matt Bouchard followed that with another RBI single.
Juan Centano and Nieves were both 3-for-4 on the night.
Starter Mark Cohoon (2–0, 2.25 ERA) was strong for the second-straight outing, scattering just three hits over seven innings. Matias Carillo and Michael Powers each had no-hit innings in relief.
Cyclones 2
Ironbirds 4
Saturday, June 27, at Aberdeen
All good things must pass — and in the Cyclones case, it was the offense. The mighty Clones managed just four hits — and three of them came in the fourth inning, when Matthew Gaski, Matt Bouchard and Luis Rivera all got on.
Starter Angel Cuan had his second rough outing, but he actually wasn’t that bad, giving up all four Ironbird runs in the third, yielding two doubles and three singles.
He took the loss, making him 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA.
Relievers Mike Lynn, Mike Johnson and Sam Martinez were great, but the Cyclones only managed one hit — a two-out single in the ninth — after that explosive fourth.
Renegades 3
Cyclones 13
Sunday, June 28, at Keyspan Park
Wounded Met starter Oliver Perez dazzled over five innings, yielding just two hits, striking out six and, most important, walking just one, setting the pace for a huge Cyclone win. It was Perez’s first outing since landing on the DL on May 6 with tendinitis in his knee.
Hudson Valley did make three errors on the night — and gave up three unearned runs — but the Cyclones returned to their double-digit hitting with 10 on the night.
The Cyclones scored two in the first, one on an error and another on a SAC fly by Nicholas Giarraputo.
Two more runs scored in the second on a force out and a John Servidio SAC fly.
But the big blows came in the fourth, thanks to Servidio’s grand slam, the centerfielder’s second on the year.
And the Cyclones weren’t done yet: In the bottom of the sixth, Giarraputo hit an RBI double, Ralph Henriquez followed with an RBI single and Luis Rivera capped the rally with a two-run triple.
All of the Renegade runs scored after Perez was relieved by Erik Turgeon, who gave up three hits in his one inning of work. But Wesley Wrenn closed the door with three no-hit innings to get his first save.
The win moved the Cyclones to a three-game lead in the McNamara Division of the New York-Penn League. The team’s 7–2 record is the best in the entire league.
