NEW BRITAIN, CT — The Lake Monsters were held to just three hits on Saturday night, but made them count as starter Jack Birtwell and two relievers held New Britain to just two early runs as Vermont rallied to defeat the Bees 5-2 in Futures League action at New Britain Stadium.
After the Bees used three straight singles and a sacrifice fly in the second inning to take a 2-0 lead, Birtwell (Gordon) retired 12 of the final 15 batters he faced (two walks in third and a fielding error in fourth were the only runners to reach against him).
The Lake Monsters were held hitless over the first five innings by Bees starter Tyler Stone, though Vermont did score in the third when Xander Meissner (Bethany Lutheran) walked, moved to second on a balk and to third on a wild pitch before scoring on a Masai Marshall (Northwestern) RBI groundout.
Vermont took a 3-2 lead in the sixth as Nolan Colby (Fairfield) was hit by a pitch leading off the inning and Bryan Richman (Pasadena CC) followed with a bunt single for the Lake Monsters first hit. Jeremy Sosa (Manhattan) followed with a sacrifice bunt that was thrown down the right-field line allowing both runners to score.
Marshall had a two-out double and scored from second on a fielding error and Hunter Kingsbury (Bryant) led off the eighth with Vermont’s first inside-the-park home run since 2014 for a 5-2 lead. Relievers Bryce DiPiero (Central Connecticut) and Zach Davis (Bryant/Colchester, VT) closed out the win with two scoreless innings each and three strikeouts apiece.
MONSTER PERFORMANCE
* Birtwell 5 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 0 SO
* DiPiero 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO
* Davis (save) 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO
BEYOND THE BOXSCORE
* Kingsbury’s inside-the-park home run was the 4th all-time for Vermont and 1st since Justin Higley snapped a 6-6 tie with a grand slam inside-the-park home run vs. Connecticut June 22, 2014
* The inside-the park HR came when Kingsbury hit a flyball down the line that the diving leftfielder was unable to catch and deflected off his glove into the LF corner.
* Birtwell improved to 4-0 (tying for most wins in league) and lowered ERA to 1.40 (3 ER-19.1 IP)
* The save was the first in his Lake Monsters career for Davis, who struckout 3 for 2nd time this season
* Vermont (18-10) has won 8 of its last 10 games to move 8 games over .500
Next Game: Sunday at Nashua, 3:00pm (FCBLnetwork.com)
Next Home Game: Tuesday vs. Worcester, 6:35pm (Hot Dog Hysteria)