NORWICH, CT — The Norwich Sea Unicorns captured the 2023 Futures League Championship with a 2-1 victory over the Vermont Lake Monsters Sunday night at Dodd Stadium in a one-game, winner-take-all Final.
Vermont took a 1-0 lead in the second on a Kyle Lodise (Augusta) RBI double to score Jake Gaudreau (Bryant), who had walked earlier in the inning. The Sea Unicorns tied the game 1-1 in the third on a leadoff walk followed by a single and an RBI forceout.
Norwich then took the lead for good in the fifth on a Zach Donahue RBI single to right following a two-out, two-base fielding error by Vermont second baseman Jordan Kang (Harvard).
The Lake Monsters put runners on first-and-second with one out in the sixth on back-to-back singles, but a flyout and groundout squashed the rally. Vermont was also unable to take advantage of a one-walk in the seventh and one-out single in eighth before going 1-2-3 in ninth, leaving the Lake Monsters as FCBL runners-up for the second straight season.
Lodise went 2-for-3 with the RBI double, while Jack Winnay (Wake Forest) went 3-for-4, accounting for five of Vermont’s six hits for the game. Starter Thomas Santana (Columbia) one run on three hits over three innings, while Ethan Mishra (Tulane) one unearned run on three hits with three strikeouts in two innings to take the loss.
MONSTER PERFORMANCES
- Lodise 2-for-3, BB, 2B, RBI
- Winnay 3-for-4
- Wyatt Cameron (Central Connecticut) 2.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO
MONSTER HIGHLIGHTS
- Vermont now has 3-4 record in championship series games (1-2 last year and 2-1 with FCBL title in 2021) and 9-5 in playoff games overall
- Including regular-season, Lake Monsters went 1-6 vs. Norwich this year with just 12 runs scored (averaged 1.71 per game vs. Norwich, 6.17 rpg vs. rest of FCBL)
- Just 7th loss when scoring 1st run of game (29-7), their 3rd loss when holding opponent to 2 runs or less (3-18) and finished with 9-8 record in 1-run games
- 5:00 pm start time was delayed 1:27 due to field conditions after an afternoon storm
- Best-of-3 championship series was reduced to 1 game due to semifinal weather issues and lack of player availability after Sunday