I can’t get enough of these Mets farm hands.

Bisons Offense Stymied In Loss

by Andrew O’Brien

Buffalo scored one run in the top of the second inning Wednesday night, but the Bisons offense went quiet the rest of the game as they fell to Norfolk, 3-1, in the third game of the four-game series. The lone Bisons run came on a Matt Tuiasosopo solo homer to center field.

Norfolk plated one run in the bottom of the fourth inning when Blake Davis singled home Joe Mahoney. In the fifth, the Tides took a 2-1 lead thanks to a Nate McLouth solo home run. The Tides added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning when Mahoney scored on an L.J. Hoes single.

Dylan Owen started for Buffalo, but it was a fairly short outing despite giving up just one earned run. In four innings of work, Owen gave up five hits, one run, while walking two and striking out one. He finished the night throwing 71 pitches (41 strikes).

Pedro Beato (3-2) took the loss after he came on in relief of Owen. In two innings, Beato gave up one hit, one run and walked one. The damage came via the McLouth homer.

Josh Edgin and Manny Acosta also pitched one inning apiece. Edgin had two strikeouts and one walk in his scoreless effort. Acosta gave up three hits and one run in his lone frame.

As a team, Buffalo only mustered five hits on the night. Tuiasosopo collected two hits and finished 2-for-4. Ruben Tejada (shortstop) and Ronny Cedeno (second base) each played nine innings. Cedeno had one hit, but they combined to go 1-for-8 atop the Triple-A Mets order. Fred Lewis and Lucas May had Buffalo’s only other hits.

Herd Rumblings: Buffalo (38-35) look to split the four-game series in the finale in Thursday’s matinee. First pitch will be 12:15 p.m. Next up, Buffalo travels to take on the Durham Bulls for a four-game series. Buffalo was 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position Wednesday night. The New York Mets have an off-day on Thursday, but Ruben Tejada likely could be activated before this weekend series against the Yankees.

Mazzoni Sparkles In Debut, B-Mets Split Twin-Bill

By Tim Burns

The Binghamton Mets and Akron Aeros completed their four games in two days marathon on Wednesday night at Canal Park by splitting the doubleheader.

In the first game, Zack Wheeler took the mound for the B-Mets, who were the ‘home’ team in this game as it was a makeup of the game postponed on June 4th. With the B-Mets run production non-existent behind him, Wheeler suffered his third loss of the season by a 2-0 decision. Wheeler threw six innings, allowing only one earned run on four hits, striking out three.

Adrian Rosario came out of the pen to pitch the seventh and final inning. Rosario had a much better outing than his last two, allowing no runs on no hits while striking out one.

The Aeros pitchers held the B-Mets offense to only two hits in the game. Their first hit came in the bottom of the opening frame with a Reese Havens single. Hit number two in the game came by way of a Joe Bonfe double in the bottom of the fourth inning. Bonfe advanced to third when Juan Centeno grounded out second to first, but that’s as far as Bonfe made it as Havens grounded out as well to end the inning.

Game two of the doubleheader featured the Double A debut of Cory Mazzoni. Mazzoni, who was 5-1 with a 3.25 ERA with St. Lucie this season, was called up to take Collin McHugh’s place in the B-Mets rotation. With the B-Mets batters finally finding a way to score, Mazzoni earned his first Double A victory by a score of 5-1, snapping the Akron Aeros home win streak of 13 games in the process.

Mazzoni shined in his inaugural game in a Binghamton uniform, going the distance for the B-Mets. In seven innings, he gave up only one run on five hits, struck out four Aeros batters, walked one, and had three wild pitches in the game. Mazzoni threw a total of 94 pitches, 68 of them for strikes.

The B-Mets bats finally came alive in game two, smacking out eight hits in the seven inning game. Their biggest inning was the top of the fourth where they scored four runs to solidify the win, their first over the last five games.

Kai Gronauer was 2/3 in the game with a double and two RBI’s. Reese Havens went 2/4 at the plate, with an RBI to his credit. Jefry Marte was 1/4 with a run scored as well.

B-Mets Buzz: The B-Mets and Aeros play game five of the series tonight at 7:05 at Canal Park. Gonzalez Germen (3-4, 4.05) will be on the hill for the B-Mets, with the Aeros sending Giovanni Soto (5-3, 3.99) to the mound. The only official roster moves on Wednesday for the B-Mets were Cory Mazzoni being assigned to Binghamton from St. Lucie, and Brandon Moore being placed on the 7-day DL. There’s a lot of dust being kicked up (as talked about right here on MMO), and a lot of frequent flyer miles being cashed in for flights between Florida and Binghamton though, so check back here throughout the day to see who’s next to make their Double A debut.

Late Rally Leads To Victory For St. Lucie

By Nick Campione (@NYMets945)

In an early morning game for the St Lucie Mets, a few keys hits in the 8th and a five-run inning in the 9th secured the 6-2 victory for the Mets over the Bradenton Marauders.

Down 1-0 in the 8th, Luis Nieves and Wilfredo Tovar walked and Wilmer Flores drove Nieves in for the first run. In the 9th, Nieves had a bases loaded RBI single and Tovar has a double which scored two to key ninth inning rally.

On the pitching side, Ramon Ramirez had a perfect inning on rehab and Tyler Pill pitched well for the Mets going 5.1 innings and allowing one run on five hits and a walk while striking out four. Taylor Whitenton notched the win with 1.2 hitless innings of work.

Lucie Logistics: After the game, St Lucie lost players to promotion in Wilfredo Tovar, Wilmer Flores, Cory Mazzoni, and Francisco Pena. They acquired players Rafael Montero, TJ Rivera, Travis Taijeron, and Jeff Walters from Savannah. SS Wilfredo Tovar was 1-3 with a double, 2 RBI’s, and a pair of walks.

 Cyclones Win Third Straight Over Yankees

By Clayton Collier

The Brooklyn Cyclones continue to remain undefeated as they improve to 3-0 on the strength of another great effort out of their starter to best the Staten Island Yankees yet again by a score of 7-2.

Luis Cessa took the mound for his 2012 debut and like his two fellow Cyclones starters before him, had himself a great effort against the Yankees. Cessa went five frames allowing two runs on six hits while walking none and punching out four. He got off to an unfortunate start, allowing extra-base hits to his first two batters of the season, then settled down before surrendering an RBI single to Fu-Lin Kuo in the fifth to make it a 3-2 ballgame.

The major story of the game however was the offense behind Cessa. In the top of the fourth, Eudy Pina hit the first homer of the year for Brooklyn, a three-run bomb to put the Cyclones in front for good in the ballgame. After that it was just purely unfair as another four runs would cross, three in the sixth, one in the seventh, to blow the ballgame open. In the sixth, a series of two productive outs, an error, three walks and two doubles resulted in the trio of runs put up. As for the seventh, a double by Stefan Sabol and then Eudy Pina made it a 7-2 game.

From then on the bullpen shutdown the Staten Island offense entirely. The combination of Ernesto Yanez, David Wynn and Beck Wheeler hurled four on-hit innings while striking out five (Yanez accounting for four of them) to slam the door and hand the Cyclones their third victory in as many games on the season.

Brooklyn Brew: Brandon Nimmo went 1-3 on the day with a double, two walks and an RBI, a good night at the plate for the Mets top prospect. Eudy Pina was the star of the game as he went 2-4 with that three run bomb and RBI double to collect four RBI-steaks on the evening. In addition to Nimmo and Pina, Julio Conception, Stefan Sabol and Jeffery Glenn all had two-baggers on the evening, for Sabol it was part of a two-hit game. The Cyclones look to take a four-game sweep of the Yankees starting tomorrow at 7pm.

Sloppy Play Dooms Debut For Matz

By Pete Shapiro

A comedy of errors by the Kingsport Mets resulted in seven unearned runs scoring, and a miserable 10-7 loss at the hands of the Princeton Rays. Five K-Met errors sunk any hopes the team had at their first win of the season. Lefty Steve Matz was the victim of some terrible fielding in the second and fourth innings, as well as a victim of his own wildness.

In the bottom of the second three errors, by Cecchini, Matz and De Leon, allowed three runs to score. In the fourth Matz was knocked out after surrendering a two-run homer to shortstop Brandon Martin. Matz line for the day: 3.1 IP, 4 hits, 5 runs, 2 earned, 2 K’s, 4 BB’s, 1 HR. He was replaced by Martires Arias (0-1) who was a victim of two more errors resulting in 5 runs, 1 earned, on 4 hits and 2 BB’s in 1.1 IP, and taking the loss.

Dominican right-hander Flabio Ortega pitched the final 3.1 IP for Kingsport, with nothing across on two hits and a strikeout. Lefty Joan Guerrero (1-0) got the win for Princeton with 3.1 IP of one-hit ball. Right-hander Pedro Silvestre picked up his first save with 3.0 IP and six strikeouts. Martin was the hitting star for Princeton going 2-for-5 out of the lead-off spot with 2 runs, 3 RBI and a HR. Rays third-baseman Julian Morillo, and center fielder James Harris chipped in two hits apiece.

K-Mets left-fielder Michael Bernal had the big hit for Kingsport when he launched a three-run homer in the second inning. CF Eris Peguero, 1B Jeyckol De Leon, DH Jeff Diehl, and 3B Pedro Perez had two hits apiece for the losing cause.

Kingsport Knews: Peguero is 4-for-9 to start the season and Diehl is 3-for-8. After striking out three times on Tuesday night, 2B Branden Kaupe walked three times on Wednesday night. The K-Mets try to avoid a three-game sweep and pick up their first win of the season on Thursday night against the Rays, game time is 7:05 pm.