The Aberdeen Ironbirds put the wraps on a three-game sweep of the Brooklyn Cyclones Friday night at Leidos Field at Ripken Stadium.
Aberdeen scored early and never looked back, blanking the Cyclones, 3-0.Four IronBirds pitchers combined on the four-hit shutout.
The IronBirds (5-5), at .500 for the first time this year, will head out for a three-game series at Hudson Valley starting Saturday. Saturday"s game is a 7:05 start. Sunday's game begins at 5:05 p.m. and Monday's finale starts at 7:05 p.m.
Aberdeen will return home Tuesday to begin a six-game homestand. The Lowell Spinners will be in town for the 6:05 p.m. start. Following Lowell, Tri-City will come in for three.
Starter Zac Lowther, the Baltimore Orioles 2017 second round pick, was strong in his Aberdeen debut. The left-hander from Xavier University allowed one base hit, while striking out five over three innings.
"It was exciting, my family was able to come down from Cleveland and just having them here was really important to me," Lowther said. Pitcing here is awesome the environment was really cool for the debut and just trying to come out here and do the best I could."
Hector Guance pitched the next four innings for the win, giving up two hits and a walk, while also striking out five.
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Scott Burke, (20th round, UCLA) piched an inning in relief, striking out one and Reed Hayes (13th round, Vanderbuilt) closed the game for the save.
Lowther, Burke and Hayes were all added to the Aberdeen roster on Friday. Cameron Ming, a left-hand pitcher from Arizona (14th round) was also added to the roster Friday.
The IronBirds gott off to a great start, putting together three straight one-out hits. T.J. NIchting and Ben Breazeale (RBI) hit consecutive doubles and Ryan Ripken singled.
Zach Jarrett added a sacrifice fly to give the 'Birds a 2-0 lead.
The game's only other run came across in the sixth. Third baseman Trevor Craport blasted a solo shot to left field. It was his first of the season.
Ripken and Nichting led the offense with two hits each.
"The positive was you come out of Staten Island getting swept, so you come back here and it was great to play at home," Aberdeen manager Kevin Bradshaw said. "It was great to be home and great to get the sweep."