BURLINGTON, VT — The Norwich Sea Unicorns scored five times in the second inning and added four runs in the fourth for an early six-run lead in a 11-6 Futures League victory over the Vermont Lake Monsters Tuesday night at historic Centennial Field.
Norwich sent 10 batters to the plate in the second, finishing the inning with three hits and two walks along with a two-out Vermont fielding error that led to three unearned runs. Vermont scored three runs in the bottom of the third to cut the deficit to 7-5 before the Sea Unicorns restored a six-run lead at 11-5 with four runs on four hits.
From there neither team could score over the next five innings until the Lake Monsters got a run in the ninth on a Tyler Favretto (Kansas Wesleyan) one-out bases loaded RBI single, but Vermont (6-8) could not get any closer.
MONSTER PERFORMANCES
- Eric Jeon (Columbia) 4×5, 2B, 2 RBI
- Joe Marini (Catholic) 3-for-5, 1 R
- Eddie Kaftan (Catholic) 4.1 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 3 SO
MONSTER HIGHLIGHTS
- Vermont got 3 singles in the 1st inning, including a Jeon RBI single, for a 1-0 lead and got its 2nd inning run on a Chone James (Virginia) RBI double.
- Jeon and Zander Teator (Babson) had RBI singles in the 3-run bottom 3rd
- Kaftan came on in relief top 4th and picked off runner to end inning, then gave up leadoff double in 5th before retiring next eight and 12 of last 13 batters faced
- James and Dawson Bryce (Merrimack) both had 2 hits for Vermont, which outhit Norwich 16-12 for the game
- Cole Tarrant (Rice/Hobart) tossed 1-2-3 top 9th with 2 strikeouts
BEYOND BOXSCORE
- Vermont is 2 games under .500 for the first time since early 2022 when they were 1-3 to start season
- The Lake Monsters have lost 8 straight regular-season games to Norwich (3 in 2024 and last 5 in 2023), 9 straight including loss in 2023 championship game
- Since May 25, 2023 including playoffs, Vermont is 0-9 vs. Norwich, 46-22 vs. rest of FCBL
Next Game: Wednesday, 6:35pm vs. Norwich
Broadcast: Streaming on FCBLnetwork.com