Fundamental Mistake Leads to Cyclones Loss

BROOKLYN- The first word out of manager Tony Tijerina’s mouth after the 5-4 loss to the Aberdeen IronBirds told it all, “fundamentals.”

“The last several nights we have just been giving away too many outs, on offense and on defense. Outs are precious” Tijerina continued to say.

Blake Hanan and Rob Marconi began the sixth inning with back to back singles, and what was suppose to be a routine putout on an Eric Sultemeir sacrifice bunt attempt, opened the inning up for disaster.

Mike Swindell made a wild throw to first base, which allowed Hanan to score, Marconi to go to third and Sultemeir advanced to second on the throwing error. Quincy Ascencion then popped out, which should have been the second out of the inning, and when CJ Smith flied out to right field the inning should have ended. Instead, Marconi scored on Smith’s sacrifice fly. However, the run making it 4-2 was the least of the Cyclones worries.

Marconi collided with catcher Aaron Hathaway at home plate, which caused the ball to bounce out of his glove. On the collision Hathaway severely injured his left thumb. He was removed after the inning and left the stadium for X-rays.

“It doesn’t look good” said Tijerina. “It was his left thumb, and he couldn’t even hold the weight of the bat. We tried to put a bat in his hand and his thumb just gave out, he could not grip it.”

Even without knowing the X-ray results Tijerina will be calling Kevin Morgan the Mets farm director to see what could be done in terms of a catcher. Tijerina is also prepared to go with backups Stacey Bennett and Danilo Reynoso.

“I’ll go with them, and platoon them, and see if I can get a hot hand out of one of them.”

Hathaway, the Mets 4th Round pick in this years draft, is the best defensive catcher in the NY-Penn League and many believed he was going to be fast-tracked in the minor leagues because of his defensive abilities. Rumors even had him starting at St. Lucie next season. In this two game series with Aberdeen he threw out four runners at second base and picked off another runner at first base. Earlier this year Hathaway threw out a runner out at third base and second base – in the same at bat.

If preliminary indications are correct, he could be out for the rest of the season. If that is the case his defensive ability will surely be missed, especially with the Cyclones in a division race. The Cyclones are just one game ahead of the New Jersey Cardinals and two games ahead of Hudson Valley.

Yunir Garcia who hit his ninth homer of the year Monday night for Capital City (A) and is hitting .282 on the year could be Hathaway’s replacement.

Notes:
Tyler Davidson who was suffering some back spasms was removed in the eight inning after aggravating the injury and is listed as day to day…Jose Rodriguez ended his rehab assignment with the Cyclones and was moved to St. Lucie of the Florida State League following Monday’s game…The Cyclones have their third and final off day of the season Tuesday.