Burlington, VT — The Lake Monsters were able to rally from 4-0 and 8-3 deficits against the Futures League regular-season champion Worcester to tie the game 8-8 in the sixth inning, but the Braveheart scored single runs in the seventh and ninth innings for a 10-8 victory over Vermont Friday night in front of 3,177 at historic Centennial.
Worcester jumped out to the 4-0 advantage with four runs in the top of the first, but the Lake Monsters quickly cut the deficit to one with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Hunter Kingsbury (Bryant) smacked a two-run triple to center and scored on a Cooper Berry (Pomona Pitzer) sacrifice fly.
After Worcester built the lead to 8-3 with a three-run fourth and one run in fifth, Lake Monsters rallied to tie game with three runs in fifth and two runs in sixth. Kingsbury picked up his third RBI with an RBI double and Tommy Popoff (Binghamton) a two-run double in the fifth before Kingsbury and Berry each added RBI groundouts in the sixth.
The Bravehearts regained the lead in the sixth with a one-out RBI double after a leadoff hit batter, then added an insurance run in the ninth by scoring on a one-out passed ball. With the win, Worcester (44-16) ties the 2002 Lake Monsters FCBL single-season record for wins with one game remaining in the regular season.
MONSTER PERFORMANCES
* Kingsbury 2-for-5, 2 R, 2B, 3B, 4 RBI
* Berry 1-for-3, BB, R, 2 RBI
* Bryan Richman (Cal Poly Pomona) 2-for-4, BB, 2 R
BEYOND THE BOXSCORE
* Vermont (40-21) closes out its regular-season home schedule with a 24-11 record at Centennial
* Lake Monsters have won 7 of their last 10 and are 16-5 in last 21 games heading into finale Saturday
* Vermont finishes 3-9 vs. Worcester during 2025 regular-season (are 37-12 vs. rest of league)
* 8th time this season Vermont has allowed 10 or more runs (2-6 record)
* 8th time that Lake Monsters have scored 8 runs in a game (4-4 record)
* Vermont is 29-10 when scoring 5 or more runs, while 11-19 when opponent 5 or more
* Crowd of 3,177 increased 2025 attendance to 92,728 (an average of 2,727 per game)
* All-time attendance in franchise’s 31-year history now 3,576 short of 3 million (2,996,424)
* Vermont will open the 2025 FCBL Playoffs at Centennial on Sunday 5:05pm with game 1 of best-of-3 semifinal series vs. New Britain, who clinched the #3 seed with win on Friday
Next Game: Saturday at Nashua, 6:00pm (Regular-Season Finale)
Next Home Game: Sunday vs. New Britain, 5:05pm (Game 1 of best-of-3 semifinal series)
Sunday Broadcast: WYCI (TV), fcblnetwork.com (stream), WJOY 1230am (radio)