The Cyclones have picked up their play lately, climbing over .500 for the first time in 2016. Brooklyn is now 20-19, after a 5-3 win in Vermont on Thursday. Harol Gonzalez improved to 3-1 with an ERA of 2.02, as he threw seven innings of one-run ball. The righty is in the top-10 in ERA in the New York-Penn League. Gonzalez has made eight starts and pitched 49 innings, both team-highs.
Pete Alonso has been an offensive threat since arriving from the University of Florida. Despite starting his time in the NYPL a little later than some of his teammates due to the College World Series, Alonso has three home runs (one to each field) and 12 RBI in 18 games. The first baseman also has the highest batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage on the Cyclones.
Brooklyn is three games behind the first-place Hudson Valley Renegades, and one game behind the Staten Island Yankees, who began the season on fire. The Cyclones swept a doubleheader from the Yankees last week, a big day for Brooklyn at the halfway point of the season. Shortstop Colby Woodmansee, who manager Tom Gamboa called the offensive star of game one, drove in both runs in a 2-1 win in game one. Woodmansee leads the team in hits, and is tied for the team lead in runs scored and runs driven in.
The Cyclones don’t wait around for home runs. The team leader, Brandon Brosher, hit four in 14 games before being moved up to Columbia. Two of the speed guys on the team are Jacob Zanon and Nick Sergakis, who have stolen 14 and nine bases respectively. Zanon is hitting under .210 but makes his hits counts, as the outfielder is tied for the team-lead with 17 RBI.
The NYPL is a pitching league, and the Cyclones are in the upper half of the 14 teams in team ERA. Some of the arms might be getting tired, as the pitching staff has pitched 30 more innings than some other teams because of extra-inning marathons. Brooklyn is seeing the dominant pitching from the other side. The Cyclones have the second lowest batting average in the league, as their .217 clip is ahead of only Batavia.
When Brooklyn returns home on Sunday, it will be Wilmer Flores Bobblehead Day. It’s a rare two faced bobblehead of the former Cyclone who went from cheers to tears last year when it looked like he would be traded from his beloved Mets to hitting a walk-off home run against Washington several nights later.