Man of the hour: Cyclones starter tosses gem in shutout win

Cyclones 1

Aberdeen 0

August 1 at MCU Park

It only took one.

The Cardiac Clones scored the lone run of the night in the fourth and held on for the 1–0 win over Aberdeen on Monday at MCU Park. Erik Manoah pitched seven shutout innings for the win.

“Manoah threw a gem,” Brooklyn manager Tom Gamboa said. “It’s the first time in his career – he’s never seen the rubber in the seventh inning. It was kind of a personal goal, I think, of his this year to make that happen.”

Jacob Zanon connected on the first hit of the game for the Cyclones with a leadoff line-drive single off the glove of leaping second baseman Alejandro Juvier in the bottom of the fourth. Zanon then stole second and didn’t stop as Alex Wells’ pitch went to the backstop, moving to third with nobody out.

Wells recovered to strike out Nick Sergakis and get Colby Woodmansee on a fly out to short right. Pete Alonso came through with a two-out double down the left field line to score Zanon.

Alonso – who connected on two of Brooklyn’s four hits – had a very specific approach at the plate, saying he was looking for “anything up, and anything I could drive. Because it was still early in the count and I didn’t want to lose my legs or be out in front.”

The one run was enough for the Cyclones pitching staff. Manoah gave up just four hits while walking two and striking out nine. The right-hander improved to 5–1 with a 3.53 earned run average.

Taylor Henry came in to pitch the eighth and Aberdeen did its best to rally. Mike Odenwaelder led off with an infield single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and advanced to third on a groundout. Henry got Ryan McKenna on a slow grounder up the middle which Woodmansee fielded and made the throw to first to end the inning.

Joseph Zanghi pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his third save of the year.

The 22–21 Cyclones will be up early for an 11:30 am game against Aberdeen.