Cyclones 5
Ironbirds 2
Sept. 1 at Aberdeen
A four-run second inning, plus five-plus strong frames by starter Bradley Holt, was all the surging Cyclones needed to win their ninth consecutive game — and take a half-game lead in the race for the New York–Penn League’s lone wild card playoff berth.
Holt did give up a triple in the first and was burned by a two straight walks in the third, but those were the only blots on his line: 5-2/3 innings, two hits, two earned runs and 12 — count ’em, 12 — strikeouts.
In the end, Kirk Nieuwenhuis’s three-run blast in the second was all the Cyclones needed, though Sean Ratliff added an RBI single in the inning. The Clones added a run in the fifth when Nieuwenhuis scored on a Juan Lagares single.
Closure Yury Santana got his 13th save of the year with a three-strikeout ninth.
The win, coupled with a loss by the Jamestown Jammers, puts the Cyclones a half-game ahead in the race for the playoffs.
