It was a great pitchers duel. The only problem with great pitchers duels is that one deserving pitcher must lose. In that vain, Chris Dunn powered his way through the Cyclones lineup striking out nine batters in eight innings; while Cyclones starter Bill Farrell scattered hits and issued only one walk through 7 1/3, including carrying a shutout into the seventh before the Braves bats finally solved Farrells riddles and the Braves beat the Cyclones 6-3 in eight innings.
Farrell allowed individual hits in each of the first three innings, the Cyclones mustered runners in the first two innings with two walks and a reached on error (the only one of the game). The Braves had a walk and two hits in the fourth but could not score thanks to some good infield defense and a fly out to shallow RF. The Cyclones got a one-out triple from Rich Robertson but a base-running mistake would erase Robertson and the game remained scoreless.
The Braves got two more one-out hits in the fifth but the Cyclones defense remained steady and held the Braves again.
In the bottom of the fifth, Dave Hartman led off with a single and Scott Travis would break the scoreless tie with a two-run missle to left-center field. The ball seemingly never got more than 10-feet off the ground but cleared the fence to give the Cyclones a 2-0 lead.
Farrell would work a 1-2-3 sixth and carry the 2-0 lead into the seventh. A lead off walk to Brendan Hogan would start the Braves rally. After a pop-up to short, Steve Schaefer laced a single to right-center moving Hogan to third. The Braves pull the double steal and the score is 2-1 Cyclones. Mike Collins then delivered with a single to left-center and the throw came in for the plate. A good throw, a good slide, a good tag (too high) and Schafer slides in safely and the score was tied at two. Farrell finished the inning with a groundout and a strikeout but the game remained tied.
Chris Dunn took over from there and struck out the first two Cyclones in the 7th and broke the tie in the 8th with a two-run double of his own. After the Braves tacked on two more, a 1-run rally for the Cyclones in the bottom of the 8th was not enough. Braves win 6-3.
For the Cyclones, Farrell pitched a great game and deserved a better pitching line than he got:
7.1 IP, 5 ER, 11 H, 1 BB, 3 K
His line is marred by the eighth inning when he ran out of gas and pitched an otherwise brilliant game.
Scott Travis is now the answer to your trivia question of, who is the first Cyclone to ever hit a homerun as his two-run bomb in the 5th looked like it would hold, but Chris Dunn was every bit the good pitcher he is known to be. Dunns line reads:
8 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 9 K, CG (W)
On top of that, he was 2-for-4 at the plate and drove in the winning run.
Up next for the Braves is an 11:00 am game on Sunday at the A Diamond against a tough Yankees squad. The Cyclones look to make up two previous rainouts against the Red Sox with a doubleheader at New Scotland beginning at 2:15.
Good luck to Steve and his Braves the rest of the way. Good group of good ball players and should be a very tough out in the playoffs!
