BURLINGTON, VT — Tristan Spalter allowed two runs and struckout seven in 7 1/3 innings and Eduardo Diaz snapped a 1-1 tie with an RBI single in a Lake Monsters two-run seventh inning to lead Vermont to a 4-2 Futures League victory over the Brockton Rox Thursday night at historic Centennial Field.
Spalter (Babson) gave up just two hits over the first seven innings, both coming in the third inning when the Rox scored the game’s first run on a Jordan Thomas RBI single. Spalter then retired the next 13 Brockton batters before leaving with a 3-2 lead after a Jake Fitzgibbons one-RBI double in the eighth.
Vermont took a 3-1 lead in the seventh on back-to-back walks to leadoff the inning followed by a Kyle McCausland (Middlebury) bunt single, Diaz (Navy) go ahead RBI single and Tommy McAndrews (Fordham) sacrifice fly.
After reliever Callen Fang (Harvard) retired the final two batters of the eighth, stranding the tying run at second, the Lake Monsters added an insurance run in the bottom of the innings on a McCausland sacrifice fly. Fang pitched a scoreless ninth for his third save of the season
MONSTER PERFORMANCES
- Spalterm (W) 7.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 SO
- Fang (S) 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 SO
- McAndrews 2-for-3, R, RBI in his Vermont debut
MONSTER HIGHLIGHTS
- The 7 1/3 innings from Spalter marked the longest outing for a Vermont pitcher in the FCBL era (Patrick Harrington 7 IP on June 26, 2021), while longest by a Lake Monsters pitcher since Kyle Finnegan August 1, 2013 in NY-Penn League game)
- Vermont (9-4) has won three straight for the 2nd time this season and is 5 games over .500 for the 1st time after winning 6 of last 7
- Diaz was 2-for-5, while Trevor Cohen (Rutgers) 2-for-4 with a run and RBI
- Game start was delayed 56 minutes due to rain
Next Game: Friday at New Britain, 6:30pm
Next Home Game: Tuesday vs. Pittsfield, 6:35pm