BURLINGTON, VT — The Vermont Lake Monsters moved back into a virtual three-way tie for first-place in the Futures League with a 5-4 walkoff victory over the Worcester Bravehearts on a bases loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth inning at historic Centennial Field on a rainy, foggy, dark Friday night.
Kyle Lodise (Augusta), who had given Vermont a 4-3 lead with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the seventh inning, led off the ninth with a sharp single to center. After Lodise advanced around to third on a sacrifice bunt and groundout to first, the Bravehearts chose to load the bases with back-to-back intentional walks.
That brought to the plate Jake Gaudreau (Bryant), who quickly worked the count to 3-0. After a called strike and foul, Gaudreau took the full count pitch for ball four forcing Lodise home with the walkoff run.
Worcester had taken an early 3-0 lead with an RBI single in the first and two-run single in the second, but the Lake Monsters tied the game 3-3 on a Trebor Cohen (Rutgers) two-out two-run single in the third and Eric Becker (Virginia) RBI single in the fourth.
After Lodise’s second home run of the season gave Vermont the lead in the seventh, the Bravehearts tied it in the eighth on a one-out solo homer from Middlebury College’s Nathan Samii off Lake Monster reliever Sean Gamble (Minnesota State).
Vermont (36-22), Norwich (36-22) and Worcester (37-23) are all in a virtual tie for first-place with two days remaining in the regular-season. The Lake Monsters and Bravehearts will play two games in Worcester Saturday, the first the completion of a July 21st suspended game (Vermont leads 2-0 mid 4th) followed by a seven-inning contest (Norwich hosts Nashua Saturday).
MONSTER PERFORMANCES
- Lodise 2-for-4, 2 R, HR, RBI
- Cohen 2-for-5, 2 RBI
- Ethan Mishra (Tulane) 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 SO
MONSTER HIGHLIGHTS
- Game delayed 1:12 at start due to rain/field conditions, 23-minute fog delay in bottom of 5th inning and 21-minute delay top 9th when field lights went out (1:56 total)
- 4 Lake Monster relievers combined: 5 IP, 1 H (solo HR), 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 9 SO
- Mishra struckout final batter top 6th with runner on 3rd, then struckout side in top 7th (all swinging)
- Vermont pitchers record 14 strikeouts, including 5 by starter Wyatt Cameron (Eastern Connecticut) who allowed 3 runs on 8 hits with 5 strikeouts over 4 innings.
- With crowd of 2,914 for regular-season home finale, Lake Monsters drew FCBL-best 75,736 fans to Centennial Field (an average of 2,443 per game)
- Regular-season ends Sunday with Vermont at Nashua, Worcester at Pittsfield and Norwich at Pittsfield (Doubleheader)
Next Game: Saturday at Worcester (DH), 5:00pm
Game 1 completion of 7/21 suspended game (VT 2-0 mid 4th) and Game 2 will be 7-inning contest
Next Home Game: Tuesday or Wednesday Playoff Game (TBA)