Cyclones fall to Doubledays on Irish Night

Brooklyn Cyclones Meeting on the Mound on Irish Heritage Night. Photo by: Stacy Podelski

The Cyclones could not find the luck of the Irish, on Irish Heritage night at MCU Park.

Poor pitching cost Brooklyn (24-23) as they fell 14-3 to the Auburn Doubledays, who scored four or more runs in three innings.

Brooklyn manager Tom Gomboa saw the struggles of Octavia Acosta, who went three innings, while giving up six runs, four earned, and walking two batters. Reliever Brandon Welch, had a rough outing with his two innings performance giving up eight earned runs, and walking three batters which was a key to his team’s loss.

“It was an ugly game. Acosta has pitched so good this year and the thing that was strange tonight, the first four hitters of the game was typical him, Changing speeds got the ball down, four quick outs. As soon as he walked a guy with one out in the second , he just completely lost it. When we brought in Welch the game got out of hand. The pitching broke down early. We just got to forget this and regroup for tomorrow,” Gamboa said.

Auburn opened the scoring with a four-run second inning, shortstop Osvaldo Abreu started the scoring off with an RBI double off the left field wall. Two batters later, Bryan Mejia brought home Abreu with an RBI single. Auburn scored two more runs on a fly ball by Cutter Dykstra which was dropped by right fielder Michael Bernal allowing two more runs to come home.

Brooklyn cut the Doubledays lead in half in the bottom half of the second, when Catcher Tomas Nido hit one of three singles in the inning to bring Bernal in to score from second. Center Fielder Tucker Tharp grounded to second to score first baseman Will Fulmer to make it 4-2.

The Doubledays added insurance with another four-run inning in the top half of the fourth. With runners on second and third, Brooklyn pitcher Brandon Welch’s pitch got away from Nido allowing Clay Williamson to score. Following a Dykstra walk, Jose Marmolejos drilled an RBI double down the left-field line which scored two runs. Auburn capped off the inning on a fielder’s choice by Austin Davidson which scored Marmolejos to make it 8-2.

Auburn had a third big inning , with a six run frame in the fifth. Marmolejos drilled a two run home run to right field to give the Doubledays a 10-2 advantage. Following a Raudy Read single, Davidson drilled a RBI double deep to center to score Read from first. Auburn concluded the big inning, with their second homer of the frame, a three run shot from Left Fielder Jeff Gardener, to make it 14-2.

The Cyclones added a run in the bottom of the fifth, on a RBI double by Jhoan Urena which scored Amed Rosario to make it 14-3.

Following the loss, the Cyclones made some roster moves as Starter Octavia Acosta was called up to the Savannah Sand Gnats, of the South Atlantic League. It was also announced that John Mora, from the Gulf Coast Mets, and Pitcher Martires Arias, from the Kingsport Mets, has been called up to join the Cyclones.

Mora is slated to hit in the leadoff spot for the Cyclones and is projected to be the type of energy guy that fans can get excited about. Arias has been pitching well and it will be interesting to see the impact he can make with the club.

Brooklyn looks to regroup tomorrow in the rubber game of the series against Auburn, first pitch is scheduled for 7:00 P.M. It will be Corey Oswalt (4-1, 2.56 ERA) taking on Drew Van Orden (1-3, 7.27 ERA)

1495 Sports is proud to bring the following postgame thoughts featuring Brooklyn Cyclones Manager Tom Gamboa: