game 1 boxscore
game 2 boxscore
BURLINGTON, VT— The Vermont Lake Monsters swept a Futures League doubleheader on Thursday night with a 10-0, five-inning “mercy rule” victory in game one before rallying from a first-inning 6-0 deficit for a 9-8 victory over New Britain in front of 2,449 at historic Centennial Field.
The sweep moves Vermont (14-5) back into first-place in the Futures League and are the 99th and 100th regular-season wins for the Lake Monsters since joining the FCBL in 2021. Vermont is now 100-48 (.676) combined in the last three seasons.
Vermont jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the opener on a Logan Keller (Navy) two-run single in the first, Tommy Martin RBI double and run scored on a Keller sacrifice fly in the second before adding an unearned run in third.
Lake Monsters ended the game with a five-run bottom fifth that started with a Tommy McAndrews (Fordham) leadoff homer. A Trevor Cohen (Rutgers) RBI single and Keller two-run single made it 9-0 before Kyle Lodise (Augusta) invoked the 10-run rule with an RBI single.
New Britain opened the nightcap with a six-run top of the first, but Vermont had a 7-6 lead by the end of the third inning with three runs on no hits (three walks, hit batter, throwing error) in second and four runs in the third on pair of run-scoring wild pitches and Kyle McCausland (Middlebury).
The Bees were able to tie the game with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh, but the Lake Monsters walked off with the win in the bottom of the inning when Devan Kodali (Vanderbilt) led off with a walk, stole second, advanced to third on Jordan Kang (Harvard) single and scored winning run on wild pitch.
MONSTER PERFORMANCES (Game 1)
- Francis Ferguson (Eastern Nazarene) 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 SO
- Keller 2-for-3, 5 RBI
- Martin 3-for-4, 3 R, 2B, RBI
MONSTER PERFORMANCES (Game 2)
- Ben Alekson (Stowe/Fairfield) 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 SO in Monster debut
- Oliver Pudvar (CVU/Manhattan) 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO
- Colby Brouillette (BFA/Central Connecticut) 1-for-3, 2 R, 1 RBI
MONSTER HIGHLIGHTS
- Lake Monsters have won 4 straight, 8 of last 9 and 11 of 13 since being 3-3
- Vermont is now 11-1 overall in 10-run “mercy rule” games and 2-0 this season
- Lake Monsters are 5-1 vs. New Britain and have scored 9 or more runs 5 times
- Over 12 innings in the 2 games, Vermont batters had 20 walks, 8 strikeouts and Monster pitchers 5 walks, 17 strikeouts
- McAndrews homer in opener was 1st HR for Vermont since May 31st and 4th for season
Next Game: Friday at Pittsfield, 6:35pm
Next Home Game: Saturday vs. Westfield, 6:05pm