Brooklyn Cyclones Headed To New York Penn League Finals

The Brooklyn Cyclones accomplished something on Friday night that they hadn’t since 2010. For the first time in nine years, they found themselves heading to the New York Penn League Finals in thrilling fashion against the Hudson Valley Renegades (affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays).

After losing the first game of the series 5-4 and winning the second game with a combined one-hitter by a score of 1-0, the Cyclones once again faced an elimination game at MCU Park in front of their home crowd, which was limited on this cold and windy night.

Matt Cleveland got the start for the Cyclones and it got off to a rough beginning as Hill Alexander hit a ball to right fielder Ranfy Adon that just kept carrying all the way out of the yard for a home run to give the Renegades a 1-0 lead.

Brooklyn came right back in the bottom of the first inning as Antoine Duplantis singled to lead off the inning and then proceeded to steal second base. After Jed Lowrie grounded out to short, Wilmer Reyes got his first of four hits on the night with a single to right field to put runners on the corners with one out. Luke Ritter hit a sacrifice fly in the next at-bat that allowed Duplantis to score and tie the game.

The second inning was even more brutal for Cleveland as he allowed a single to Luis Leon and then walked Beau Brundage and Jonathan Embry while throwing a wild pitch in the process. That loaded the bases with nobody out for Ben Troike who hit the ball softly to short in which Reyes threw to second base for the first out of the inning as the Renegades took back the lead at 2-1.

Cyclones’ manager Edgardo Alfonzo saw a risky situation developing and wasn’t going to allow the game to get out of hand, so he pulled Cleveland after just 1 1/3 innings and put Dan Goggin into the game. The right-handed reliever struck out K.V. Edwards and got the 22nd overall pick of the 2019 MLB Draft, Greg Jones, to ground out to second to end the threat.

“Cleveland has been doing great, but in games like this you don’t have tomorrow,” Alfonzo said. “I know Cleveland sometimes gets wild and it’s tough, but we talked and I said, ‘Hey, you don’t need to go deep if you don’t feel good or if you’re a little wild.'”

Goggin struggled in the third inning, though, as he allowed a single to Nick Sogard and with him stealing during the next at-bat, threw a wild pitch that allowed him to go from first to third just like that. All it took was a Jacson McGowan groundout to score their third run of the game and extend their lead to 3-1.

The Cyclones got that run back quickly as Adon came to the plate for the first time that night and hit a deep fly ball to left field that left the yard to cut the Renegades lead to 3-2.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Cyclones found a way to tie, albeit in a very unconventional way. With two outs in the inning, Jake Mangum singled up the middle. After a passed ball by Luis Leon, Mangum was at second with two outs.

During the same at-bat with Yoel Romero, Mangum advanced to third on another passed ball by Leon. The catcher tried to throw him out, though, and the ball ricocheted off the glove of the third baseman into short left field in which Mangum ran home to tie the game.

The score remained tied for the next four innings, with Goggin, Nick MacDonald, and Andrew Edwards combining to give the Cyclones 7 2/3 innings of one-run baseball that night.

Edwards, in particular, was very impressive as he struck out five batters in two innings of work as he also would earn the win, not letting the importance of pitching late in a win-or-go-home game get to him.

“I was a closer at school last year, so these late-inning, high tense, situations are actually what I thrive for,” Edwards said. “Those are actually the situations in which I perform the best just because it’s actually comfortable for me at this point. The more tense, the more nervous the situation is, is actually when I feel the most comfortable and most relaxed. So, coming into this game with it being 3-3 in the eighth, I actually felt right at home.”

Well, his gutsy performance, in addition to the entire bullpen’s job well done, was what set the stage for the special moment that was meant to be.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Renegades brought in reliever Eleardo Cabrera who clearly did not have control that night as he walked Romero on four pitches to start the inning. Jake Ortega came to the plate next and with two strikes on him, laid down a good bunt that advanced Romero to second with one out.

Adon was the next man up for the Cyclones and having already delivered a homer earlier in the game, was ready for the moment.

On a 2-1 pitch, Adon took a ball to deep right field that Hill Alexander was struggling to read as what looked like a fly out initially turned into a gruesome battle with the wind. The ball dropped as the fans in the park went crazy. Romero had not really moved off second base yet thinking he was just going to try to advance to third on a sacrifice fly.

It dropped and he ran as hard as he could from second with Fonzie waving him in from third. The throw to the plate was wild and not in time as Romero scored the winning run to as the Cyclones advanced to the New York Penn League Finals for the first time since 2010.

Throughout the year, the team has seen some really cool stories with unsung heroes delivering in big situations, with Adon being the guy on Friday.

“That’s what happens in this league,” Fonzie said. “You start off with a certain amount of guys and you add guys to the roster and then you have start all over again with them. But, I think every guy who has come to our team contributed to getting this. That’s what’s so great about baseball. You don’t depend on just one guy.”

Brooklyn looks to continue their magical run on Sunday when they head to Lowell (affiliate of the Boston Red Sox) to face the Spinners in the first game of their three-game series. Brooklyn has home-field advantage so they will host them on Monday and Tuesday (if needed).