BURLINGTON, VT — The Worcester Bravehearts scored four times in the top of the first inning and then scored six runs in the fourth to open up an 11-3 advantage before going on to defeat the Vermont Lake Monsters 13-8 in Futures League action Wednesday night at historic Centennial Field.
Jackson Marshall got the scoring started with a three-run homer, his seventh home run of the season to tie Vermont’s Shaun McMillan (St. John’s) for the league-lead. The Lake Monsters cut the deficit to 4-3 with three runs in the second inning, including RBI singles from Nick Frontino (Mississippi State) and Xander Meissner (Bethany Lutheran).
After Worcester’s’ six-run top of fourth, Vermont scored three of its own in the bottom of the inning to cut the Braveheart lead to 11-6. The team’s exchanged runs in the fifth, including a Will Mahala (Virginia) RBI single for the Lake Monsters. Mahala added an RBI double to close out scoring in thrbottom of the ninth.
MONSTER PERFORMANCE
* Frontino 2-for-4, 2 R, RBI
* Meissner 2-for-4, BB, 2 R, RBI
* Tyler Harmony (Northeastern) 2-for-3, BB, 2 HBP
BEYOND THE BOXSCORE
* Vermont (19-12) has lost its last 6 games vs. Worcester and 1-6 overall (18-6 vs. rest of FCBL)
* Lake Monsters have allowed 9 or more runs in 4 of last 5 games (outscored 42-39, but 3-2 record)
* Cooper Berry (Pomona Pitzer) 1-for-3 with 2 walks and has hit safely 11 of last 14 games (16×51, .314)
* Will Kingsbury (Bryant) 2-for-5, R, RBI and has hit in 4 straight (7×16, .438), 15 of last 18 (22×67, .328)
* Vermont 7-8-9 batters (Frontino, Meissner, Harmony) combined 6-for-11, BB, 3 HBP, 5 R, 2 RBI
* Worcester collected 11 of its 13 hits over the first four innings
Next Game: Thursday at Westfield, 6:30pm
Broadcast: FCBLnetwork.com (stream)
Next Home Game: Friday vs. Westfield, 1:05pm