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NEW BRITAIN, CT — Four New Britain pitchers combined on a three-hit shutout as the Bees edged Vermont 1-0 Monday night at New Britain Stadium, evening the Futures League best-of-three series and forcing a deciding game three Tuesday 6:35pm at historic Centennial Field,
Bee starter Greg Grabinski retired 15 of 17 Lake Monsters faced over 5 scoreless innings, allowing just a two-out Nolan Colby (Fairfield) walk in the third and two-out Hunter Kingsbury (Bryant) single in the fourth inning.
Vermont starter Jack Kelleher (Northern Essex CC) gave up a double and single to put runners on first-n-third to open the bottom of the third before allowing a one-out sacrifice fly for the game’s first run. The Bees opened the fourth with a walk and single to again put runners on the corners with no outs, but this time Kelleher worked out of the jam with a strikeout, pop up to first and a flyout.
Kelleher finished with 1 run allowed on four hits with two walks and four strikeouts over six innings. Zach Davis (Bryant/Colchester) pitched the final two innings for the Lake Monsters, working around a leadoff double in the eighth by stranding runner at third with one out on a strikeouts and groundout
Vermont’s only scoring threat for the night came in the sixth when they got back-to-back one-out singles from Travis Stroh (Fairleigh Dickinson) and Bryan Richman (Cal Poly Pomona) to put runners on the corners, but reliever Matthew McDowell struckout Sam Cavossa (Saint Michaels) and retired Kingsbury on a pop up to second.
Ryan Tater (1 IP) and Evan Mello (2 IP) retired each of the Lake Monsters nine batters over the final three innings to close out the shutout victory.
MONSTER PERFORMANCES|
* Kelliher 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO
* Davis 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO
BEYOND THE BOXSCORE
* Lake Monsters are now 2-3 in game 2 of the 5 FCBL semifinals they have appeared (5-0 in game 1)
* Vermont has lost game 2 of semifinals (after winning game 1) each of the last 3 years
* 1st time Lake Monsters shutout in post-season since game 2 of 2017 NYPL finals to Hudson Valley
* Lake Monsters have needed to use just 3 pitchers over first 2 games (17 IP, 10 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 11 SO)
* Adam Schwartz (Colby) scheduled to start game 3 for Vermont against New Britain’s Max Jarvie
Semifinal Game #3: Tuesday at New Britain, 6:35pm
Broadcast: WYCI (TV), fcblnetwork.com (stream), WJOY 1230am (radio)