By Nathan Rode
National Supervisor

BROOKLYN, NY—The 2015 Metropolitan Baseball Classic concluded Sunday at the Brooklyn Cyclones’ MCU Park with a strong group of players showing the Northeast has good baseball. Taking on Chet Lemon’s Juice—primarily made up of players from Florida—the Northeast Mets clinched the third annual Met Classic title with a 2-0 win. The Northeast is known for producing pitching prospects and the Mets squad certainly got a boost from its arms, even with two high-level arms that were on the roster being unavailable for the event.

Sunday’s championship win for the Northeast Mets came on the back of RHP Matt Cleveland (Windsor HS, CT), who pitched five innings and allowed just two hits and a walk while striking out four. Just one out he recorded wasn’t on a strikeout or groundout and one of the hits should have been a fly out as a ball was poorly played in the outfield. The two hits were the misplayed fly ball and an infield single. Cleveland really opened some eyes with his outing. He’s athletic and projectable at 6-foot-5, 200 pounds, pitching just slightly across his body with a long arm action. While most pitchers this week lost a tick on their fastball deeper into appearances, Cleveland held steady for five innings, sitting 91-93 mph for the first few innings and finishing at 90-92. He only dipped below 90 on a couple of pitches. His breaking ball has sweeping break now, sitting 75-78, but he has tremendous upside.