NORWICH, CT — A.J. Soldra led off the bottom of the fifth with a triple and scored on a wild pitch to snap a 1-1 tie as the Norwich Sea Unicorns scored two runs in the inning to beat the Vermont Lake Monsters 3-1 in Futures League action Saturday night at Dodd Stadium.
Vermont had taken a 1-0 lead in the third inning on Mark Quatrani’s (Cornell) league-leading 33 RBI of the season with an RBI single to score Tyler Favretto (Kansas Wesleyan), who had reached on a one-out hit by pitch. That would be the only run the Lake Monsters would score off Norwich starter Ben Alejandro, who had thrown a 9-inning no-hitter in his last start.
Norwich tied the game in the fourth off reliever Robbie Lee (Denison), who walked a pair and gave up two hits including an RBI single in his one inning of work. Dylan Knightly (Middlebury) came on to start the fifth, allowing the triple, run-scoring wild pitch and then a two-out RBI infield single later in the inning.
The Lake Monsters got two runners on board in the eighth with one out, but a strikeout and fly out ended that threat, then two runners in the ninth on a leadoff walk followed by one-out walk before back-to-back strikeouts looking to end the game.
With the five-game series tied 2-2, the Lake Monsters and Sea Unicorns will play at Norwich on Sunday in the rubber game of the series.
MONSTER PERFORMANCES
- Quatrani 2-for-4, RBI
- Eddie Kaftan (Catholic) 3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 SO
- Cole Riskin (Clarkson) 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 1 SO
MONSTER HIGHLIGHTS
- 1st time that Lake Monsters held to 1 run or fewer since 2-1 loss to New Britain on July 4th and just the 5th loss this season when holding opponent to less than 5 runs (20-5)
- Vermont pitchers combined for 9 walks, 2 hit batters and just 3 strikeouts, while Lake Monster batters 5 walks and 13 strikeouts
BEYOND BOXSCORE
- 1st time that Lake Monsters held to 1 run or fewer since 2-1 loss to New Britain on July 4th and just the 5th loss this season when holding opponent to less than 5 runs (20-5)
- Vermont will play 2 games vs. Worcester at Centennial Field both Tuesday and Wednesday at 5:35pm next week (Tuesday will include resumption of July 17th suspended game at Worcester followed by 7-inning game, while Wednesday will be pair of 7-inning games including makeup of June 23rd rainout at Centennial)
Next Game: Sunday, 4:00pm at Norwich (streaming on FCBLnetwork.com)
Next Home Game: Tuesday, doubleheader 5:35 vs. Worcester (25-cent Hot Dog Hysteria)