Cyclones Take Two From Staten Island In Doubleheader

Cyclones Take Two From
Staten Island In Doubleheader

It was a picture perfect evening last Friday night at Coney Island. There was a late summer wind at the oceanfront, and the lights from Coney Island Amusement Park were twinkling in the night just over the left field wall at KeySpan Park. KeySpan was full and baseball was in the air. The Brooklyn Cyclones and the Staten Island Yankees, both A level Minor League teams for the New York Mets and Yankees, respectively, were facing off to complete a suspended game and play a seven-inning game in a modified twin bill.

The Cyclones (42–16), in first place in their division, continued their strong play this season by winning the first game with a hitting barrage, 13–2. The boys from Brooklyn got excellent pitching from Ross Peeples and some hot hitting from Robert McIntyre to take the nightcap, 2–1.

The first game was a continuation of a game that was suspended due to rain on Aug. 13 with the score tied, 1–1, in the last half of the fourth inning. When the game resumed, the Cyclones picked up a run in the bottom of the fourth when Joe Jiannetti drove in a run on a single with the bases loaded. The Cyclones scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth. Brooklyn again had the bags full, and when Tyler Beuerlein walked on a full count, it was 3–1, Cyclones.

McIntyre, who knocked in seven runs in the doubleheader, beat out a close play at first to drive in his first run of the night. The steady Angel Pagan then roped a pitch to right field for a base hit and the Cyclones had a 5–1 lead. With Blake McGinley pitching and owning an impressive 1.83 ERA prior to the game, the Cyclones looked in control.

The Cyclones’ bats really went to work in the bottom of the seventh when Wes Cooksey of the Yankees was rocked for four straight hits, including a solo home run by Frank Corr and McIntyre’s three-run blast that cleared the wall in left field. Edgar Alfonzo, manager of the Cyclones, thought that the four-run seventh put the game away. "That was the key," Alfonzo said. Alfonzo liked the way his team looked when they resumed play in the bottom of the fourth. "They came ready to play today," Alfonzo said. Ready indeed. The Cyclones scored four more times in the bottom of the eighth and had 15 hits for the game. Corr and Noel Devarez had four hits apiece for the Cyclones.

McGinley, a reliable lefty who comes in from the bullpen in key situations, picked up his third win of the season. He was glad for the run support. "We played great tonight," McGinley said. "Our hitters came through at a clutch time."

McIntyre had a great night at the plate, driving in five runs in the first game. His two-run homer in the second was the difference in game two. After his heroics in game one, he was modest about his big three-run homer. "It’s just like another hit," McIntryre said. "You just go out and it happens every now and then. But you try to hit the ball and hopefully have good results."

McIntyre certainly had good results in the bottom of the first inning of the doubleheader. With Pagan on first with a lead-off walk, McIntyre cleared the left field wall off of SI ace Jason Arnold. The Cyclones had an early 2–0 lead and it held up as lefty Peeples (9–1) and Brian Walker combined to hold the Yankees to just one run.

Peeples and Staten Island’s Arnold are two of the top pitchers in the New York–Penn League, and both pitched well. Arnold (7–2) made one mistake and it cost him the game. The Yankees out-hit Brooklyn in the second game 7 to 3, but runs count more than base hits, and the Cyclones got the job done.