BURLINGTON, VT — John Delgado tossed six scoreless innings and combined with three relievers on a five-hitter with 14 strikeouts of Bee batters as the Vermont Lake Monsters defeated New Britain 4-1 in Futures League action Thursday night on Delta Dental Diamond at historic Centennial Field.
Delgado (Stevenson) extended his scoreless inning streak to 20 straight with the six shutout frames Thursday. After erasing a leadoff single to open the game with a double play, Delgado retired 10 straight batters (struckout the side in the third) with the only other he allowed a comebacker off his glove with two outs in the fourth.
The Vermont offense was held off the scoreboard until the sixth when they took advantage of a pair of New Britain errors to score two runs, both coming on a bases loaded error by the Bees second baseman on a one-out hard hit grounder off the bat of Will Mahala (Virginia)
After a 58-minute lightning and rain delay at the start of the eighth inning, the Lake Monsters added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the inning as Bryan Richman (Pasadena CC) reached on a leadoff double and later scored on a wild pitch followed by a Mahala triple and Cooper Berry (Pomona Pitzer) RBI single.
Sean Gamble (Bethany Lutheran), who came on to get a strikeout with two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the eighth, gave up a leadoff homer in the ninth to Camden Righi before closing out the game for his third save of the season.
MONSTER PERFORMANCE
* Delgado (W, 3-0) 6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO
* Mahala 1-for-4, R, 3B, RBI
* Richman 1-for-3, 2 R, 2B
BEYOND THE BOXSCORE
* The 6 innings pitched and 8 strikeouts by Delgado were both season highs for a Vemont pitcher
* Shaun McMillan (St. John’s) went 0-for-3 to snap his 14-game hitting streak, but with an intentional walk in the 6th inning he has still reached by hit or walk in all 15 games played
* Both teams finished with 5 hits for the game
* The 14 strikeouts by Vermont pitchers were a season-high for the Lake Monsters
* Sam Cavossa (Saint Michael’s) had a single and run scored to increase his league-leading totals to 34 hits and 25 runs scored in 19 games played
Next Game: Friday vs. Westfield, 6:35pm
Promotion: Rally Towel Giveaway