BURLINGTON, VT — Cooper Kelly went 2-for-3 with a solo homer and a two-run triple, while Will Parkinson and Silas Reed combined for 10 strikeouts over 4 1/3 scoreless innings in the Vermont Lake Monsters 6-3 Futures League victory over the Nashua Silver Knights Wednesday night in front of 2,646 at historic Centennial Field.

Cooper’s second home run of the season came in the bottom of the second to give Vermont a 2-0 lead, then after the Lake Monsters had taken a 4-3 lead on a wild pitch and infield single/throwing error bottom of fifth, Cooper (Kansas) hit a high flyball to center that fell behind the Silver Knights centerfielder for the two-run triple and 6-3 lead in the sixth.

Nashua had taken a 3-2 lead with three runs in the top of the fifth inning. With the game tied 2-2, Parkinson (Columbia) came out of the bullpen with the bases loaded and allowed an RBI infield single that gave the Silver Knights the lead. Then in the sixth and seventh struckout six of seven batters faced, allowing just a one-double in seventh.

Reed (Tufts) earned his first save of the season, retiring the final six Nashua batters with three strikeouts as Lake Monster pitchers combined for 16 strikeouts on the night (Vermont pitchers lead the FCBL with 554 strikeouts).

Monster Performances
Cooper Kelly 2-for-3, R, 3B, HR, 3 RBI
Will Parkinson (W) 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 SO
Silas Reed (S) 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO

Monster Highlights
* Starter Francis Ferguson (Eastern Nazarene) tossed four scoreless innings with 6 strikeouts before being charged with 3 runs in the top of the 5th inning
* Gio Cueto (Wake Forest) went 2-for-3 and Connor Bowman (Tufts) 1-for-4 with 1 run as Vermont held to 5 hits
* Lake Monster batters had 7 walks on the night with 3 of the walks eventually scoring a run

Beyond The Boxscore
* Vermont (38-15) has won 12 of their last 16 games and have franchise-best record after 53 games (32-21 in 1996 NYPL Championship season)
* Lake Monsters are 23 games over .500 for 2nd-time this season (37-14) and 3rd-time in history (48-25 end of 1996)
* Vermont’s magic # to clinch FCBL regular-season title is 3 (any combination of VT wins and/or losses by both Nashua or New Britain adding up to 3)

Next Game: Thursday vs. Westfield, 6:35pm