Darin Gorski and Nick Santomauro showed up in Brooklyn just in time for Opening Night.

Arriving the day before this evening’s season opener against the rival Staten Island Yankees (weather permitting), the duo is expected to provide the Cyclones with a hard-throwing left-handed pitcher (Gorski) and a slugging outfielder with a Dartmouth education (Santomauro).

With the release of their 25-man roster for the upcoming season, a two-day promotional tour through Prospect Park and Borough Hall and Wednesday’s open workout at KeySpan Park, the Cyclones provided their fans with a look at the players who will pitch, hit, run and field across the lush grass on Surf Avenue this summer.

Unlike last season, however, when the parent-club New York Mets sent three first-round draft picks — Brad Holt, Ike Davis and Reese Havens — to Coney Island for their first taste of professional baseball, this year’s roster consists of only two selections in the top-10 — Gorski and Santomauro.

Originally projected to go somewhere between the 10th and 12th rounds, Gorski may emerge as a steal in the seventh round out of Kutztown University based on his size (6-foot-4, 210 pounds) and maturity (21 years old).

The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference’s East Pitcher of the Year went 8-2 with a 2.17 ERA and 100 strikeouts in 79 innings during his final collegiate campaign.

Now, he’ll toe the rubber at KeySpan Park, where the Cyclones have long been noted for their dominance on the mound under former pitching coach Hector Berrios.

Gorski will work closely with new Brooklyn pitching instructor Rick Tomlin, but already appears to have a firm grasp on his strengths and weaknesses as a hurler.

“I’d like to say I’m a power pitcher,� said Gorski. “But I also like the mental part of the game. I tried not to watch the draft because the anxiety was building with each round. I want to get out there and help the ballclub win.�

With 2008 18th-round pick Collin McHugh slated to start against the Yankees tonight, Gorski will have to wait his turn.

Santomauro, however, should emerge as a staple in the Brooklyn lineup after earning Ivy League Player of the Year Honors and leading the Big Green to the NCAA Regionals for the first time in 22 years.

The junior slugger batted .377 with eight homers and 37 RBIs as a junior before the Mets leaped in and snatched him in Round 10 — considerably earlier than most expected the New Jersey native to land.

McHugh gets the opening night nod after posting a 4.17 ERA in 12 appearances, including eight starts, at Rookie-level Kingston of the Appalachian League last season. Ironically, the start will coincide with the 6-foot-2, 195-pound right-hander’s 22nd birthday.

While Holt, Davis and Havens have already gone on to bigger and better things in the Mets’ organization (Looking Back to the Future), Gorski, Santomauro and McHugh are just beginning their respective quests toward the Majors.

Fortunately, they won’t be alone.

First-year manager Pedro Lopez will have plenty of other interchangeable parts to work during what figure to be three tough months of under the hot Brooklyn sun.

Lopez, who replaces two-time Cyclones skipper Edgar Alfonzo at the helm, will likely get a feel for what he has to work with during the first few weeks of the campaign. How the players respond to the sellout crowds on Coney Island might also go a long way toward determining how ready they are for the pros.

“It’s like playing in the big leagues on a Minor League field,� Lopez said of the Brooklyn baseball experience.

The Baby Bums will also feature some returnees to the roster, including left-hander Jim Fuller, right-hander Mike Lynn and fan favorite John Servidio.

Fuller, selected in the 21st round last June, went 2-0 with a 1.00 ERA in eight outings, including one start, at Brooklyn last year. The Marlborough, Mass., native struck out 22 and walked only five in 18 innings while holding opponents scoreless in six of his appearances.

Lynn went 0-1 with a 5.79 ERA in four relief outings for the Cyclones last summer, but figures to see more work out of the pen this year. A 30th-round pick in 2008, Lynn retired five of the six leadoff batters he faced — a good trend for a late-inning reliever.

Servidio will probably be the most familiar face in the Brooklyn outfield this summer after batting .239 with three homers and 17 RBIs in 40 games on Coney Island last year.

Oddly, the Florida native did most of his hitting outside the confines of KeySpan Park, hitting a solid .293 (24-for-82) on the road while coming in at a paltry .161 (9-for-56) clip at home.

Lopez worked behind the plate for most of his 13 seasons as a Minor Leaguer, so he knows the importance of a good catcher. The Cyclones enter the campaign armed with three backstops, including Juan Centeno, Dock Doyle and Ralph Henriquez.

Centeno, a 20-year-old native of Puerto Rico, hit .206 with a double and 10 runs scored in 24 contests with the Gulf Coast League Mets last year, putting together a season-high eight-game hitting streak from June 22 to July 9.

Doyle, a fifth-round pick out of Coastal Carolina last June, appeared in one game at Class A Advanced St. Lucie this year after splitting time between Kingsport and Brooklyn last year. In five games with the Cyclones, Doyle hit .250 with two RBIs.

Henriquez has already played 15 games in the Mets’ system this year, batting a combined .327 with three doubles and seven RBIs between Class A Savannah and St. Lucie.

The 22-year-old Key West product was a third-round pick by Houston in 2005 before New York picked him up for pitcher Josh Appell in December 2007.

Joining Lopez and Tomlin on the coaching staff are hitting instructor Jack Voigt and bench coach Joel Fuentes.

After hosting the Yankees tonight, the Cyclones are scheduled to travel across the Verrazano for Saturday’s showdown and back to Brooklyn for Sunday’s season-opening series finale.

Last year, the Yankees edged the Cyclones for a playoff spot, but were ousted by Jamestown in the opening round.

The Cyclones failed to qualify for the post-season after reaching the NY-Penn League Finals in ’07.

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