State College 7
Cyclones 6
Aug. 12 at MCU Park
A late Cyclones rally fell short as Brooklyn fell under .500 with a 7–6 loss to State College.
The Cyclones had been 15–2 when scoring four runs or more, but have now lost two straight.
“In my two-year tenure here, I have not seen this park give up this many runs in two consecutive days,” skipper Tom Gamboa said.
Tyler Badamo fell to 2–6 as he struggled after coming off a groin injury that caused him to miss a start.
“I think his control suffered as a result of that,” Gamboa said. “Physically, he was fine but he left a lot of pitches up in the zone and they jumped on them.”
Jhohan Acevedo led the game off with a triple and scored for the Spikes on a sacrifice fly.
The Clones answered back in the first with a two-run single from Enmanuel Zabala.
The lead didn’t last long, as Orlando Olivera led off the second with a home run.
Brooklyn took back the lead in the third. David Thompson was hit by a pitch and moved to third on Jeff Diehl’s double.
With Zabala at the plate, Landon Beck uncorked a wild pitch to score Thompson and move Diehl to third.
Diehl scored as Jose Garcia beat out a two-out infield single to make it 4–2.
The Spikes got a run back in the fourth as Casey Grayson led off with a double, moved to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a Cole Lankford single.
The plan that pitching coach Dave LaRoche made for Tyler Badamo was to have him throw five innings, or 75 pitches.
When Badamo pitched a 1-2-3 fifth inning and said he felt fine, LaRoche and Gamboa decided to let him go back out for the sixth.
“In hindsight, it’s too bad that the fifth was so clean,” Gamboa said.
Badamo surrendered a walk and a single to begin the sixth. After he struck out Olivera, Lankford singled to load the bases.
At the plate was Ronnierd Garcia, who had struck out twice. Behind him was R.J. Dennard who had also struck out twice. Still, with Badamo struggling, Gamboa went to Nicco Blank.
“It was too bad, because he had struck out the next two hitters twice, but tired, and getting his pitches up, we weren’t gonna wait until the horse was out of the barn,” Gamboa said.
Blank got ahead 1–2 before Garcia pulled a slider past David Thompson and down the line to give the Spikes a 5–4 lead.
Dennard added a run-scoring groundout.
The Spikes scored in the eighth as Garcia’s double off Blank scored Lankford.
State College reliever Kevin Alexander struggled in the ninth. Leading 7–4, the righty walked Alfredo Reyes and Tucker Tharp. Both runners advanced on a Vinny Siena groundout.
Pedro Echemendia was brought in to get the final two outs.
A wild pitch scored Reyes, and when Spikes catcher Riley Drongesen’s throw missed Echemendia, Tharp scored to make it 7–6.
David Thompson flew out to the waning track and Diehl struck out looking to end the game.
The 25–26 Cyclones are still only a game and a half behind the hated Staten Island Yankees. Aberdeen is also 25–26.
Brooklyn will take on State College on Thursday at 7 pm at MCU Park.
