Brooklyn Blanks Vermont 7-0 Friday

BURLINGTON, VT --- Brooklyn's Marcos Molina continues his dominance of the New York-Penn League on Friday night, allowing just one hit with one walk, one hit batter and 12 strikeouts over seven innings to lead the Cyclones to a 7-0 victory over the Vermont Lake Monsters at historic Centennial Field.

Molina, who leads the league in both ERA at 1.58 and strikeouts with 73, allowed just a leadoff single in the second inning to Jose Briuzuela. After the single, Molina struckout the side in the second and third innings then struckout Dayton Alexander to start the fourth inning for his seven strikeout in a row. After one strikeout in both the fourth and fifth innings, Molina struckout the side again in the sixth after hitting Jose Chavez to leadoff the inning. He picked up his 12th strikeout of the night in the seventh, getting John Nogowski looking (one of six caught lookings on the night).

Brooklyn relieer Luis Rengel came on in the eighth and continued the strikeout barrage by striking out the side in order on just 10 pitches before Eddie Villasmil recorded a strikeout in the ninth as the three Cyclone pitchers combined for 16 strikeouts. It was the most strikeouts for a Vermont team at Centennial Field since the Lake Monsters struckout 17 times in a 14-2 loss to Hudson Valley on July 28, 2010.

The Cyclones got the only run they would need in the fourth inning on a Michael Bernal RBI single off Vermont starter Jerad Grundy (3-6), who allowed just the one run on six hits with three walks and four strikeouts over five innings. Brooklyn added four runs in the sixth off reliever Blake McMullen, then single runs in the seventh and another in the ninth on a Jhoan Urbeu leadoff home run. Tomas Nido was 3-for-4 with an RBI for Brooklyn (33-28), while Pedro Perez and Urena both had two hits for the Cyclones.

Vermont's only other hit beside the Brizuela leadoff single in the second was a Gabriel Santana leadoff single in the ninth inning. The shutout was the fifth of the season against the Lake Monsters (26-35), while a league-leading eighth for Brooklyn pitchers.

Vermont and Brooklyn will play the second of the three-game series at Centennial on Saturday beginning at 6:05 pm. It is Burton Snowboards Back To School Night and the first 500 kids (ages 5-18) will receive a free Burton backpack filled with other great prizes.