BURLINGTON, VT — Held scoreless over the first five innings, the Vermont Lake Monsters offense exploded for 12 runs over its final three innings at bat and twice came from behind for a 12-8 Futures League victory over the Westfield Starfires Wednesday night at historic Centennial Field.
Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth Vermont tied the game on a Eric Jeon (Columbia) two-run homer to leftcenter after a leadoff walk to open the inning. Lake Monsters added three more runs in the inning on a Dawson Bryce (Merrimack) single, Mark Quatrani (Cornell) double and Colby Brouillette (Central Connecticut) two-run double.
Westfield responded with six runs of its own in the top of the seventh on a Cameron Papetti grand slam and Jayden Novak two-run homer for an 8-5 Starfires lead. But the Lake Monsters countered with three of their own in the bottom of the seventh on a Quatrani RBI double to left, Brouillette RBI groundout and Joey Gale (Saint Joseph’s) two-out RBI single to tie game at 8.
Jack Rickheim (Harvard) opened the eighth with a double down the leftfield line and pinch runner Jeter Polledo (Wake Forest) later scored the go ahead run on a bases loaded balk. Bryce added a pair of insurance runs with a two-run line drive double to right and scored on a Quatrani RBI groundball single to left.
MONSTER PERFORMANCES
- Quatrani 3-for-5, 2 R, 2 2B, 2 RBI
- Bryce 2-for-3, BB, 3 R, 2B, 2 RBI
- Jeon 2-for-4, 2 R, HR, 2 RBI
MONSTER HIGHLIGHTS
- The 2-run homer was the 1st home run of the season for Jeon and 10th overall for Vermont
- Chone James (Virginia) 1-for-3 with a walk, two runs and a sac bunt in 8th inning
- Brouillette was 1-for-5 with a run, double and 3 RBI increasing his Vermont record for career RBI to 60
- Starter Will Harrigan (Columbia) allowed 2 runs (2-run double in 4th) on 2 hits over 4 innings of work
- Cole Tarrant (Hobart) retired the final two batters in top of eighth to earn the win, while Sean Gamble (Minnesota State) struckout the side in the ninth
BEYOND BOXSCORE
- The 2 teams combined for 2 runs on 4 hits over the first 5 innings before combining for 18 runs on 18 hits over the final 3 1/2 innings
- 8 different players have homered for Vermont, led by Wyatt Patchett (Le Moyne) with 3 homers and 7 other players with 1 home run.
- Vermont improves to 9-11 with the victory with 4 of the 9 wins coming in the team’s final inning at bat
Next Game: Thursday June 20th, 6:35pm vs. FCBL Road Warriors
Broadcast Info: FCBLnetwork.com