Mateo Strikes Out 10 In Five Innings

After Luis Mateo struck out the first four batters of the game, he struggled through the next four innings as the Cyclones fell to the Tigers, 11-3. With the Hudson Valley Renegades beating State College, the Cyclones are now three games out of first place in the McNamara Division, but remain in the lead for the NYPL Wild Card.

After Brandon Nimmo struck out to start the first, Phillip Evans hit a double to left field. After a wild pitch by Hua-Wei Lo, Evans was on third with two outs and Kevin Plawecki singled him in. for the early 1-0 lead.

After the fourth consecutive strikeout of the game for Mateo, he gave up a one-out double down the right field line to Devon Travis. Tyler Hanover then grounded out to second baseman Jeff Reynolds, moving Travis to third, now with two outs. Zach Kirksey then singled to right, scoring Travis and tying the game at 1-1.

After the Tigers added on another run in the third to make it a 2-1 lead, the fifth inning is where Connecticut blew the game open. After Jake Stewart and Danry Vasquez were retired for the first two outs, Patrick Smith started the two out rally by singling to right field. Travis then came up and also singled to right field, allowing Smith to reach third base. With runners on the corners, Hanover knocked in Smith and moved Travis to second. Zach Kirskey then stepped to the plate and tripled to the right center field triangle to score both runners, and give the Tigers a 5-1 lead.

In the eighth inning Devon Travus and Tyler Hanover hit back-to-back home runs to left field to make the score 11-2. The Cyclones bullpen struggled in this game as they gave up six runs over the final three innings of play. Of these six runs, only two were earned, but the bullpen did give up six hits and hit one batter. The Cyclones pitching staff looks to redeem themselves tomorrow as Luis Cessa takes the mound.