BURLINGTON, VT — The Vermont Lake Monsters snapped a 3-3 tie with a five-run bottom of the fifth inning and went on to a 9-4 Futures League victory over the Norwich Sea Unicorns Friday night at historic Centennial.

With the win, the Lake Monsters clinched a spot in the 2022 FCBL playoffs  and Vermont (36-14) also improved to 22 games over .500 for the first time in franchise history since ending the 1996 New York-Penn League championship season 23 over at 48-25.

Norwich had tied the game on a two-run single in the top of the fifth, but the Lake Monsters quickly loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning before Jimmy Evans (Tufts) smashed an 0-2 pitch to rightcenter for a two-run double and 5-3 Vermont lead. The Lake Monsters added RBI singles from Tommy Martin (Yale) and Cooper Kelly (Kansas) in the inning along with a Charles Crawford (Brown) squeeze bunt.

Brian Schaub (Trinity) had given Vermont a 3-1 lead in the third innng with a solo home run to left for his fifth home run of the season including his fourth in the last six games. Starter Tim Noone (Babson) allowed three runs (two earned) on seven hits with no walks and six strikeouts over five innings to improve to 4-0 overall.

Monster Performances
Jimmy Evans 3-for-4, BB, R, 2B, 4 RBI
Brian Schaub 1-for-3, 2 BB, 3 R, HR, RBI
Tim Noone (W) 5 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 SO

Monster Highlights
* Vermont took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on RBI singles from Evans and Cam Conley (Pepperdine)
* Evans collected his third hit and fourth RBI with an 8th-inning single
* Cooper Kelly was 2-for-4 and has now hit safey in 13 of his last 15 games (17-for-49)
* Silas Reed (Tufts) was charged with an unearned run and had 4 strikeouts in 2 innings
* Will Parkinson (Columbia) retired final six batters of the game, including striking out the side in the 9th

Beyond The Boxscore
* Vermont (36-14) has won 10 of their last 13 games and have franchise best record after 50 games (32-18 in 1996)
* The Lake Monsters improved to 22-6 at Centennial Field this season and 47-17 at home the past 2 seasons
* While the victory clinched a spot in 4-team playoffs, Lake Monsters magic # to clinch FCBL regular-season title is 7 (any combination of Vermont wins and/or Nashua losses adding up to 7 clinches 1st-place)

Next Game: Saturday vs. Worcester, 6:05pm
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