NORWICH, CT — Norwich’s Alex Irizarry hit a grand slam in the bottom of the first inning, then after the Lake Monsters had cut the deficit to one run, the Sea Unicorns scored three times in seventh and eighth innings to advance to the Futures League finals with a 10-3 victory over Vermont Thursday afternoon at Dodd Stadium.
Vermont starter Cole Riskin (Clarkson) walked the bases loaded with one out before Irizarry connected for the Sea Unicorns second first-inning grand slam against the Lake Monsters in the last seven days.
After another Riskin walk with two outs, Zander Teator (Babson) came on in relief to record the final out of the inning and then preceded to retire the next 15 Norwich batters (seven strikeouts) for 5.1 perfect innings of relief.
Meanwhile Vermont got back into the game with single runs in the second, third and fifth innings to get within a run at 4-3. A Dante Pozzi (Catholic) two-out double was followed by a Tommy Googins (Princeton) RBI single in the second, while Mark Quatrani (Cornell) followed a Sam Cavossa (Saint Michael’s) triple with a sacrifice fly in the second.
Vermont loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth on a Cavossa walk, Quatrani single and Teator (who had started game as DH) bunt single, but the Lake Monsters were able to plate just one run on a Chone James (Virginia) sacrifice fly.
The Sea Unicorns put the game away with three runs (two earned) off Colchester’s Zach Davis (Bryant) in the seventh, opening the inning with a misplayed triple and back-to-back singles, and then three more runs off Sean Gamble (Minnesota State) in the eighth.
MONSTER PERFORMANCES
* Teator 3-for-4 as DH and retired all 16 batters faced (7 strikeouts) in 5.1 IP
* Googins 3-for-3, BB, RBI
* Cavossa 2-for-4, BB, 2 R, 3B
BEYOND THE BOXSCORE
* Vermont suffers 1st semifinal series loss after winning 1st 3 FCBL semifinals (2021-23) and just 2nd series loss in 8 semifinals all-time including NYPL-era (lost 2-of-3 to Auburn in 2011)
* Lake Monsters now 7-3 in FCBL semifinal games overall and 14-5 in semifinal contests all-time
* Vermont outhit Norwich 10-6, but Sea Unicorns went 4-for-6 with runners in scoring position and Lake Monsters just 2-for-8 with RISP
* Top-seed Norwich will host two-seed Westfield in FCBL best-of-3 finals starting Friday