NORWICH, CT — The Norwich Sea Unicorns scored three times in the bottom of the first inning and went to defeat the Vermont Lake Monsters 5-2 in Futures League action Wednesday morning at Dodd Stadium.

Norwich opened bottom of first with back-to-back singles off Vermont starter Francis Ferguson (Eastern Nazarene) before scoring runs on a wild pitch and RBI groundout, then added an unearned run on an RBI single. Sea Unicorns added another run in second on a RBI double and took a 5-2 lead in the fifth with another RBI single.

Vermont scored its two runs on a Charles Crawford (Brown) RBI single in the fourth and an Harrison Didawick RBI grounds-rule double with no outs in the fifth, but that would be the Lake Monsters last of seven hits in the game as 15 of the final 16 Vermont batters were retired.

Two pitchers made their Lake Monsters debuts including Oliver Pudvar (CVU/Manhattan), who allowed two hits with two strikeouts over two scoreless frames (sixth and seventh innings). The other Monsters pitching debut was Seth Zurbruegg (Onondaga), who tossed two hitless innings before allowing a run on two hits in the fifth.

Monster Performances
Tommy Martin 2-for-5  (10-game hitting streak)
Harrison Didawick 1-for-4, 2B, RBI
Oliver Pudvar 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO

Monster Highlights
* With his debut, Pudvar is the 9th different Vermonter to play for Lake Monsters this season and 3rd from CVU (Liam Reiner, Ian Parent)
* Vermont had 7 hits, 4 walks and hit batter over first 6 innings, but left 10 runners on base (2-for-16 with RISP)

Beyond The Boxscore
* Vermont (41-18) went 2-3 on 5-game roadtrip and is 16-11 on the road this season (25-7 at Centennial)
* Just 5th time this season that Lake Monsters held to 2 or fewer runs in a game (opponents 20 games with 2 or fewer)

Next Home Game: Thursday vs. Worcester, 6:35pm
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