Baseball: Monsters Roar Back, Top Aberdeen 7-6

Posted on , updated on by George Commo

Courtesy Vermont Lake Monsters

ABERDEEN, MD — The Vermont Lake Monsters rallied from a four-run deficit with two runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh for a 7-6 victory over the Aberdeen Ironbirds in a New York-Penn League series opener at Ripken Stadium on Friday night.

The Lake Monsters got the rally started when Kyle McCann led off the sixth with a single to right, advanced to second on a hit batter and third on a wild pitch before scoring on a Jose Rivas groundout to short. Noah Vaughan followed with an RBI single to right that plated Marty Bechina to cut the deficit four-run deficit in half.

Vermont then completed rally with three runs in the seventh on a Bechina two-out RBI single that brought home Logan Davidson (who had led off with a walk) to cut the Aberdeen lead to one and Kevin Richards gave the Lake Monsters the lead with a two-out, two-run single to left scoring Jordan Diaz (one-out single) and Bechina.

Relievers Clark Cota and Jose Mora combined to retire the final nine Ironbirds after the Lake Monsters took the lead as Cota struckout four over two innings and Mora two strikeouts in a perfect ninth for his fifth save. Colin Peluse (2-1) picked up the win after being charged with three runs (two earned) on two hits with a walk and five strikeouts over three innings of relief.

Aberdeen had built the 6-2 lead with three runs in the first off Vermont starter Tyler Baum, then added three more runs without hitting the ball out of the infield in the fifth with two hit batters, two infield singles and a two-run throwing error on a chopper to Bechina at third.

Davidson was 2-for-4 with a walk and double, while scoring three runs for the third time in last four games. Bechina was 2-for-4 with two runs scored, a double and one RBI, while Diaz and McCann each had two of Vermont’s 11 hits. ‘

Kyle Martin (2-1) allowed the three seventh-inning runs to take the loss, while Andrew Fregia was 1-for-4 with a two-run double for Aberdeen (28-19), which falls into a first-place tie with Hudson Valley in the McNamara Division.

Vermont (19-28) has now won three of the first four contests on the six-game roadtrip, which will conclude at Aberdeen with games 6:05 pm Saturday and 4:05 pm Sunday before the Lake Monsters return home for a three-game series starting Monday.