NORWICH, CT — The Vermont Lake Monsters opened its best-of-three semifinal series against Norwich by scoring four runs in the top of the first inning and then holding off a rally from the top-seeded Sea Unicorns for a 5-4 victory in game one of the Futures League playoffs Monday night at Dodd Stadium.
Tyler Favretto (Kansas Wesleyan) walked and Sam Cavossa (Saint Michael’s) singled to open the game. After a forceout and groundout, the Lake Monsters scored four two-out runs on a Zander Teator (Babson) two-run double followed by RBI singles from Chone James (Virginia) and Jackson Sirois (Virginia).
Vermont starter Brody Shawn (Wake Forest) retired first seven Norwich batters and allowed two runs on three hits with two walks and five strikeouts over 3 ⅔ innings. Robbie Lee (Denison) came on in relief of Shawn with two outs and bases loaded in fourth, getting a groundout to keep Lake Monsters lead 4-2.
Mark Quatrani (Cornell) restored a three-run lead for Vermont in the top of the fifth with an RBI single scoring Owen McKiernan (Tufts), who had opened the inning with an infield single. Lee struckout the side in the bottom of the fifth and retired nine of 10 before a two-out infield single and double in bottom of seventh (got strikeout for final out of inning for 5-3 Vermont lead).
Sean Gamble (Minnesota State) tossed a scoreless eighth inning, but opened the bottom of ninth with a hit batter and walk to put the tying runs on base. Teator (2-for-4 with the two-run double out of DH spot) came out of the bullpen and, after a double steal put two runners in scoring position, got a pop out to short for the first out.
Next batter James Soldra smacked a Teator 1-1 pitch into left-center where Cavossa made a sliding catch for the second out that scored Chris Carson on a sacrifice fly. There was some confusion on whether a catch or not, but the three umpires got together and quickly signaled out. Teator then retired Nick Tomasetto on flyout to centerfield to end the game.
Vermont will have a chance to advance to its fourth straight Futures League Championship Round with a victory over Norwich Tuesday night at historic Centennial Field beginning at 6:35pm. Tickets are on sale 24/7 at www.vermontlakemonsters.com or in person at the ticket office or by phone (802) 655-4200 ext. 1 on Tuesday starting at 11:00 am.
MONSTER PERFORMANCES
* Teator 2-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI batting, 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 SO for save pitching
* Lee 3.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO
* James & Quatrani both 1-for-4, R, RBI
BEYOND THE BOXSCORE
* Including 2023 championship game, Lake Monsters had lost 9 straight games at Norwich
* Last Vermont win at Dodd Stadium was August 2, 2022 (0-5 in 2024 regular-season)
* Vermont now 7-1 in FCBL semifinal games (14-3 including NYPL seasons)
* Lake Monsters 5 runs in 6 innings off Norwich starter Hector Alejandro (5-0, 2.16 ERA during regular season with 1 run, 3 hits over 6 innings vs. Vermont July 27th)
NEXT GAME: Tuesday, vs. Norwich 6:35pm at Centennial Field (Semifinal Game 2)
BROADCAST INFO: streaming on FCBLnetwork.com