BURLINGTON, VT — The Lake Monsters scored five runs on five hits, including four straight two-out RBI base hits, as Vermont completed a 12-game Futures League season sweep of the Westfield Starfires with a 7-3 victory in front of 4,030 at historic Centennial Field’s Delta Dental Diamond Friday night.
With the Lake Monsters trailing 1-0 in third, Leandro Guevara (AIC) led off the inning with. After a pair of outs and a base on balls, Shaun McMillan (St. John’s) tied the game with a RBI groundball single to left. Hunter Kingsbury (Bryant) and Jeremy Sosa (Manhattan) followed with RBI singles before Nick Frontino (Mississippi State) closed out the inning with a two-run triple for a 5-1 advantage.
Frontino picked up his third RBI of the game, and seventh in the last two games, with a bases loaded RBI infield single in the hole at short in the fifth for a 5-2 lead and Sosa added an RBI single for an unearned run in the seventh.
Starter John Higgins (Seton Hall) allowed a run on three straight singles to start the game, but worked out of further trouble with a strikeout and double play. Westfield battled to the end, scoring a run and loading the bases with two outs in the ninth, but Sean Gamble (Bethany Lutheran) came on to get a strikeout looking to end the game.
MONSTER PERFORMANCES
* Sosa 3-for-4, R, 2 RBI
* Frontino 2-for-4, 3B, 3 RBI
* Higgins 4 IP, 5 H, R, ER, BB, 3 SO
BEYOND THE BOXSCORE
* Vermont (28-16) has won 4 straight to move 12 games over .500 for the 1st time this season
* Lake Monsters won all 12 meetings this season with Westfield, including a perfect 10-0 at Centennial
* Jack Kelleher (Northern Essex CC) allowed 1 run on 3 hits over 2 innings of relief for his 4th win
* By retiring final batter, Gamble earned his league-leading 6th save of season and collected his Lake Monsters 18th career save (passing Wyatt Cameron for Vermont’s career lead)
* McMillan picked up his league-leading 44th RBI and now 5 behind Jimmy Evans ‘22 Vermont FCBL-era season record of 49
* Attendance of 4,030 was 2nd largest of the season and tied for 5th highest since joining Futures League
Next Game: Saturday at Nashua, 6:00pm
Broadcast: WYCI (TV), FCBLnetwork.com (stream)
Next Home Game: Sunday, vs. Nashua, 5:05pm