To this point, the Cyclones’ 2016 season has been characterized by time. Five hours and 39 minutes on opening night, six hours and five minutes three nights later, and Friday night it was 109, as in 109 minutes of rain delays to begin the game.
A game that was scheduled to begin at 7:00 failed to get underway until 8:45, at which point the rain started to come down again. Erik Manoah, the Cyclones starter, threw five pitches before the umpires called the players off the field. Nine minutes later, the players were back on the field and the game continued.
When it was all said and done, the Cyclones fell to the Connecticut Tigers by a score of five to two. Josh Lester brought home the winning run with a single in the top of the tenth inning.
The Tigers got on the board first, when a Cole Bauml double in the third inning set up Lester, who drove in Will Savage from third base with a groundout. Bauml scored two batters later when Sam Machonis punched a single into left field.
The Cyclones scored their fist run on a Brandon Brosher home run, his second in three days, in the sixth inning. Darryl Knight tied the score later in the inning with a one-out single that drove in Jacob Zanon
Manoah limited the damage to six hits and those two runs over five innings. The 20-year-old struck out nine batters, which tied his career high. Raul Jacobson filled his usual role by piggybacking Manoah, and went 4 2/3 innings but took the loss after allowing three runs in the tenth.
Darryl Knight was the only Cyclones batter to pick up two hits. He singled in the second and sixth innings. The latter drove in Jacob Zanon with the Cyclones’ second run of the game.
Zanon tried his best to bring the Cyclones back in the bottom of the tenth. He doubled in Colby Woodmansee with one out before the game was over.
The Cyclones announced before the game that Mets first-round pick RHP Justin Dunn, who has been with the team for 11 days since he signed, will make his professional debut on Monday, July 4 in Batavia. Dunn, like all of the newly drafted pitchers in the organization, went through a ten-day throwing program before he was eligible to be activated. Second-round pick 1B Peter Alonso is also expected to join the Cyclones this weekend.
1B Dionis Paulino, who dislocated his shoulder on Monday, also suffered a torn labrum on the play and will miss the remainder of the season after undergoing surgery. Paulino also dislocated the shoulder during extended spring training, leaving him susceptible to reaggravation. C Ali Sanchez also visited the doctor on Friday and was told that his hand bruise is a severe one but is in the process of healing. Sanchez was removed from the game on June 20 after taking a foul ball off his throwing hand between the thumb and index finger and has not played since.
