BURLINGTON, VT — BURLINGTON, VT —- Gio Cueto and Tommy Hawke both had three hits and two runs scored at the top of the Lake Monsters lineup as the Lake Monsters built an early 10-1 advantage before holding on for an 11-6 Futures League victory over the Westfield Starfires Saturday night at historic Centennial Field.
Vermont scored three times in the bottom of the second inning on a Hawke (West Forest) RBI infield single and Cueto (Wake Forest) two-run groundball single to center for a 4-0 lead. Then with the Lake Monsters leading 5-1, Vermont opened the fifth with back-to-back singles followed by walks to five of the next six batters for a 9-1 advantage.
After a Cam Conley (Pepperdine) sacrifice fly in the sixth gave Vermont a nine-run advantage, the Starfires scored four runs of their own in the seventh and another in the eighth before Cueto launched a leadoff home run off the leftfield press box for a 11-6 lead.
Monster Performances
Francis Ferguson (W) 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 S0
Gio Cueto 3-for-5, 2 R, HR, 3 RBI
Tommy Hawke 3-for-5, 2 R, 1 RBI
Monster Highlights
* Francis Ferguson (Eastern Nazarene) 1 walk in 1st/3rd innings and 1 hit in 2nd/4th innings before 2 hits in 5th to allow only run over 5 innings.
* Hawke snapped an 0-for-17 slide with singles in each of his first 3 at bats
* Conley was 0-for-2 with bases loaded walk and sac fly in his first game since July 2nd
* Brian Schuab (Trinity) had an RBI double in the 1st inningand scored 2 runs
Beyond The Boxscore
* Lake Monsters are still franchise-best 28-11 after 39 games (previous best was 24-15 in 1996 NYPL title season)
* Vermont is 13-1 when they hit a homer (only loss Thursday at Nashua)
* 9th game this season that the Lake Monsters have scored in double figures, 7th time 11+ runs
* Vermont remains 7 1/2 games in front of Nashua for 1st-place (8 1/2 games ahead of Westfield and New Britain)
Next Game: Sunday vs. Westfield, 5:05pm
Face Painting, Kids Run The Bases and Have A Catch post-game