Brooklyn 12, Staten Island 5

After being shut out on Thursday evening, the Brooklyn bats woke up in a BIG way on Friday afternoon, outslugging the Staten Island Yankees on their way to a 12-5 win at Richmond County Bank Ballpark. The Cyclones pounded out 16 hits including home runs from Charley Thurber and Richard Lucas. The Cyclones scored nine of their 12 runs with two outs thanks to timely hitting from the entire team, as every starter collected at least one hit. Rafael Montero (1-0) collected the win as the Cyclones bullpen combined on 4.2 shutout innings to close out the win.


After a scoreless first inning, the Cyclones drew first blood in the top of the second frame. Cole Frenzel was hit by a pitch to start the threat and would come around to score later in the frame when left fielder Cody Grice lost a popup in the sun, which allowed Frenzel to score all the way from first and went as an RBI double for Brian Harrison.



The sun, which proved to be a factor throughout the game, would also play a roll in the bottom of the frame as Staten Island took their only lead of the game. Reymond Nunez, Casey Stevenson and Zach Wilson each hit consecutive fly balls to center field and each time Travis Taijeron had difficulty playing the ball, due to the bright sun that was prevalent through out the game, which led to a pair of runs, and the Baby Bombers had a 2-1 advantage after two.



But in the top of the third inning the Cyclones rebounded and took advantage of some Staten Island miscues to take the lead for good. Brandon Brown and Charley Thurber singled to start the threat before Richard Lucas reached on a fielding error by Cito Culver at shortstop, which extended the inning and loaded the bases with two outs. Cole Frenzel took advantage of the opportunity with a perfectly placed bloop single to left field that scored a pair and put Brooklyn in front 3-2. The lead would swell later in inning as Tyler Austin committed an error at third base for the Yankees which pushed Lucas across to make it 4-2.

The see-saw scoring would continue in the Yankees next turn at-bat as a pair of throwing errors on the same play allowed Mason Williams to score all the way from first on a stolen base attempt to slice the lead to 4-3. Once again, however, it was the Cyclones who responded in their next turn at-bat when Charley Thurber hit his first professional home run, a two-run shot to right field, as the Brooklyn lead ballooned to 6-3. An inning later Brian Harrison, who had four hits on the afternoon, smashed a double to score another Cyclone and put the lead to 7-3 heading into the bottom of the fifth.



In that bottom of the fifth the Yankees loaded the bases off of Brooklyn starter Jeff Walters before Rafael Montero was summoned from the bullpen. Tyler Austin greeted the righthander with a two-RBI single to trim the Brooklyn advantage to 7-5, but Montero struck out Reymond Nunez and got Casey Stevenson to fly out with the tying runs on base and escaped the jam.



The Cyclones offense didn’t slow down at all though and once again they would put a tally on the board in their next chance at the plate. Danny Muno started the scoring chance with a walk and moved himself into scoring position by forcing the Yankees hurler to balk when he got off to a huge jump on a stolen base attempt. Javier Rodriguez took advantage of the scoring chance and drove in Muno with an RBI single to make it 8-5 after six.

Brooklyn rounded out their scoring with a pair of runs in the seventh and two more in the eight, courtesy of a Richard Lucas home run to make the final score 12-5. The Cyclones scored at least one run in seven on the nine innings en route to their blow out win.



Tyler Pill and Jeremy Gould each tossed 2.0 scoreless innings out of the bullpen to close out the win.

The Cyclones and Yankees will square off in a decisive Game Three tomorrow night at 7:05 PM on Staten Island. LHP Carlos Vazquez (4-2, 3.61) will make toe the rubber for Brooklyn and will be opposed by RHP William Oliver (5-2, 3.42) for Staten Island.