Baseball: Monsters Pitchers Fan 19, Top Batavia 3-1

Posted on , updated on by George Commo

Courtesy Vermont Lake Monsters

BURLINGTON — Reliever Jhenderson Hurtado struckout 10 batters over 5 1/3 innings while combing with starter Michael Murray and closer Jeferson Mejia for 19 strikeouts in the Vermont Lake Monsters 3-1 New York-Penn League victory over the Batavia Muckdogs Monday night at historic Centennial Field.

Hurtado (3-0) came on in relief to record a strikeout to end the top of the third inning, then struckout nine more Muckdogs over the next five innings including the side in the eighth inning. Hurtado is the first Lake Monsters pitcher to strikeout 10 batters in a game at Centennial Field since P.J. Dean vs. Auburn on August 11, 2008.

Vermont starter Michael Murray allowed one run on two hits, a leadoff bunt single and one-out Troy Johnston RBI single in the top of the first, over his 2 2/3 innings of work with six of the eight outs by strikeout. Mejia notched his third save of the season by striking out the side in the ninth as he Hurtado combined to strikeout the last six Batavia batters.

The 19 strikeouts tied the Lake Monsters team record which was previously set in the 2019 season opener vs. Tri-City on June 14th. Hurtado had seven punchout over four innings and Mejia five strikeouts over two innings in that game.

Jordan Diaz led off the bottom of the second inning with a long home run to leftcenter, his fifth homer of the season, to tie the game at 1-1. Then after a walk and pickoff attempt error, Kyle McCann gave the Lake Monsters a 2-1 lead with a line drive RBI single to center scoring Marty Bechina.

Game stayed 2-1 until the bottom of the eighth when Logan Davidson lined a two-out single off the glove of shortstop Dalvy Rosario and Jose Rivas followed with another infield single. Davidson then came around to score on a pair of wild pitches by Muckdogs reliever Geremy Galindez

Starter Edgar Martinez allowed two runs on four hits, three coming in the second inning, with a walk and five strikeouts over the first five innings for Batavia (18-12). The Lake Monsters and Muckdogs combined for just 10 runs and 21 hits over the three-game series (Vermont 2-0 win Saturday and Batavia 3-1 win Sunday).

Vermont (13-18) is off on Tuesday before beginning a three-game series at Staten Island on Wednesday. The Lake Monsters return to Centennial for another three-game homestand vs. Tri-City starting on Saturday.