With Brooklyn having lost game two of the series to even the series on Monday, the Brooklyn Cyclones and Lowell Spinners faced off in a deciding third game of the series to determine this season’s championship last night. Nate Jones took the mound for the Cyclones, while Jay Groome started for Lowell. Though returning from Tommy John surgery, the former first round draft pick still has high upside stuff, and is not a pitcher to be trifled with.

The Spinners went down 1-2-3 in the first, but so too did the Cyclones. The inning was not without controversey, as Yoel Romero was called out on catcher’s interference after laying down a bunt that would have moved Antoine Duplantis over from first to second after he led off the inning with a single. Manager Edgardo Alfonzo argued with home plate umpire Justin Juska, and got his point across, but Romero remained out and Brooklyn would end up failing to capitalize on the two men who got on base that inning.

Edgardo Alfonzo and home plate umpire Justin Juska

After a scoreless first, the Cyclones broke through in the second. Brett Baty walked to open the inning, and advanced to third on a double from semi-final game three hero Ranfy Adon. Jake Mangum singled Baty home later in the inning to open the scoring and give the Cyclones an early lead. Adon advanced to third on the double, and immediately came around to score on a ground out from Antoine Duplantis to give Brooklyn a 2-0 lead heading into the third. Brooklyn’s lead proved to be short lived. Nathan Jones came back out for the third and gave up a pair of runs on an RBI single from Lowell’s Joe Davis.

Having completed his scheduled three innings, Jones was pulled from the game after the third and was relieved by Matthew Allan. The 18-year-old, who posted a 2.61 ERA in 10.1 innings with the GCL Mets, was effective in his appearance last Thursday, and Fonzie and the Cyclones were hoping that he would be once again. The right-hander ended ended up giving the Cyclones three perfect innings, keeping the game tied 2-2 through six.

For all of the zeroes than Jones and Allan were putting up, the Spinners were matching them. After Groome left in the third, Dylan Spacke finished the inning and then Yusniel Padron-Artilles was brought in. The Cuban right-hander struck out fourteen batters, including twelve in a row- breaking Tom Seaver’s record of ten- in his last playoff appearance against the Batavia Muckdogs and was setting the Cyclones down with ease as well.

Mitch Ragan came into the game in the top of the seventh, and immediately gave up a leadoff homer to Lowell’s Marino Campana to give Lowell the lead. Things suddenly looked grim.

Having found themselves behind for the first time, the Cyclones came out swinging in the bottom of the seventh. Jake Mangum singled with one out in the inning, and Antoine Duplantis followed with an RBI triple to tie the game at 3-3. Duplantis subsequently scored on a single from Yoel Romero to give Brooklyn the lead heading into the eighth.

Andrew Mitchell, who came into the game in the eighth and managed to get through the inning unscathed despite hitting a batter, came back out for the ninth. Third baseman Nick Northcut led off the inning with a single right back up the middle, putting the tying run on base. After striking out a batter, he then walked pinch hitter Jaxx Groshans, putting the tying run on second. After striking out Stephen Scott, all that stood between Brooklyn and their first solo championship in franchise history was pinch hitter Alex Erro. Batting from the right side against the left-handed Edwards, the southpaw fed him a steady diet of pitches down and in. Jake Ortega blocked a ball in the dirt that Erro went fishing for for strike one. He swung over a second for strike two. With the crowd on their feet, Edwards let loose one more pitch.