Brooklyn Cyclones Miraculous Season Ends With a Championship

The Brooklyn Cyclones accomplished something special on Tuesday, winning the New York Penn League championship, something they have not done since 2001, which they were co-champions with the Williamsport Crosscutters due to the 9/11 attacks.

So Tuesday night’s miraculous victory represented the first time the Brooklyn Cyclones ever finished in sole possession of a championship.

The team came into the game having lost 3-1 the night prior the Lowell Spinners, clearly crushed from the loss knowing they would be facing their third elimination game this month.

“Tomorrow is going to be the last game of the season and the last chance to make history,” Edgardo Alfonzo said on Monday. “They better be coming prepared to play tomorrow. It’s not going to be easy, but tomorrow is just another day.”

History, they made!

Nathan Jones took the mound of the Cyclones and got through the first two innings fairly easily, setting the stage for the offense to give them a lead.

Mets’ first-rounder, Brett Baty, walked to start the inning and then Ranfy Adon hit a double to left field to put runners on second and third base with nobody out.

Jake Mangum, who was moved down the nine spot in the lineup after hitting sixth in the first two games of the series, came to the plate and promptly drove in the first run of the game, giving Brooklyn a 1-0 lead. Antoine Duplantis drove in the team’s second run on an RBI groundout to score Adon.

Cyclones’ fans all started getting ready to keep track of the number of outs remaining to finish this season out. Not so fast, though.

In the top of the third inning, Jones promptly gave both runs back as Joe Davis drove in Nick Decker with an RBI single and then a throwing error by Adon allowed Cameron Cannon to score as well.

Mets’ third-round pick, Matthew Allan, came in to pitch the fourth innings and ended up tossing three scoreless innings in which he struck out two batters and did not allow a single baserunner.

The seventh inning was when things heated up, though.

Mitch Ragan replaced Allan in the top of the seventh inning and on a 3-1 pitch to the first batter of the inning, Marino Campana, allowed a homer into the trees behind the left field wall. 3-2 Lowell. Brooklyn now was a mere nine outs away from their hopes for this season being crushed.

Jake Ortega flew out to left field to start the bottom of the inning, now reducing their season to a mere eight outs.

Mangum wasn’t prepared to let his potential final at-bat go to waste, though, singling up the middle to give the team some life. Duplantis came to the plate next and then it happened. He roped a ball down the right field line that went all the way into the corner, allowing Mangum to score and tie the game.

“It was one of those where I saw Antoine pull a line drive down the line and when I saw the first baseman jump, I was like ‘that’s down’ and at the moment I told myself that I was scoring from first,” Mangum said about that play.

The cool thing about that play was a connection that has been developing for the last four years, with Mangum playing for Mississippi State and Duplantis playing for LSU. The two players were once arch-rivals, but also great friends. And on Tuesday night, they got to actually play on the field for the same team.

“Antoine and I, we’ve played against each other for a long time and we’ve been friends through all of that. Just to end our first year together on the same team, on a high note was a lot of fun,” Mangum added.

That wasn’t all the Cyclones did in that inning, with Yoel Romero driving in Duplantis to give the Cyclones a 4-3 lead, now a mere six outs remaining between them and popping open bottles of champagne.

Andrew Edwards took the hill for the top of the eighth inning, previously having talked about how much of a thrill pitching with pressure is for him last week. Well, can’t get much more thrilling than this.

The southpaw got through that inning pretty easily, with a Nick Decker hit by pitch representing the only blemish. That put the team three outs away, with him being the arm they lived or died by in the ninth as well.

Edwards had a pretty rocky start, though, allowing a single to Nicholas Northcut to put the tying run on base with nobody out. He recovered quickly to strike out Campana, the hitter who almost crushed their dreams a mere two innings prior.

Jaxx Groshans walked in the next at-bat, though, now putting both the tying and leading runs on base with one out. How does the man who thrives for the moment get out of this, though?

Well, he simply strikes out the last two batters of the game and throws his glove in the air like Jesse Orosco in 1986 after doing it.

“It was pretty incredible,” Edwards said. “That was actually the first time that I’ve been in that specific situation before so to be able to come in and close out that game was a pretty special moment for me.”

From there, all that was left to do was celebrate and reflect on a job done exceptionally well, with Alfonzo now having won his first championship as a manager and Endy Chavez having won in his first season as a coach.

“In my three years here, this is a group of guys that I’m just really proud of coaching,” Fonzie said. “They played hard and they’re pretty good listeners and they’re talented. They fight and fight and fight and never give up.”