Baseball: Monsters Win 4th Straight, top Yankees 4-3

Posted on , updated on by George Commo

Courtesy Vermont Lake Monsters

BURLINGTON — The Vermont Lake Monsters opened a three-game homestand with a come-from-behind 4-3 victory over the Staten Island Yankees Monday night at historic Centennial Field for their sixth New York-Penn victory in the last seven games.

Vermont trailed 3-2 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh when Noah Vaughan got the rally started with a walk. Jose Rivas followed with a line drive single to center advancing Vaughan to third. After Rivas stole second, Yerdel Vargas plated Vaughan with tying run on RBI infield single to deep short. Rivas then scored go ahead run on a wild pitch on his 21st birthday.

After retiring the Yankees in order in both the sixth and seventh innings, Vermont’s Jorge Martinez (4-1) put first two batters aboard in eighth on a walk and hit batter. Jose Mora came out of the bullpen and threw a wild pitch to put two runners in scoring position, but then struckout Matt Pita and Ezequiel Duran before getting Evan Alexander on flyout to preserve 4-3 lead.

Mora allowed a two-out single in the ninth, but also recorded his third and fourth strikeouts to earn his sixth save of the year. After Vermont starter Richard Morban gave up a Juan De Leon solo homer in second and Pat DeMarco two-run homer in fourth, the three Lake Monster pitchers combined to retire 15 of the last 18 Yankees.

The Lake Monsters had jumped out to a 2-0 lead with three doubles in the bottom of the first. Logan Davidson led off the inning with line drive double to left and scored on a Kyle McCann two-out RBI double to leftcenter. Kevin Richards added an RBI two-bagger to right scoring McCann.

Yankees starter Anderson Munoz settled down after the Richards double to retire next 12 Vermont batters (seven strikeouts) until Davidson two-out single in fifth. Nick Ernst (0-3) retired the first two Lake Monsters in the seventh, but was charged with the two runs to take the loss.

Davidson was 2-for-4 with a run and double for Vermont (22-28), which snapped a four-game home losing streak (winning for the first time since July 21st at Centennial). DeLeon was 2-for-4 including his fifth home run of the season for Staten Island (26-23).

Vermont and Staten Island will play the second of the three-game series starting at 7:05 pm on Tuesday. It is Military Appreciation Night at the ballpark with a Lake Monsters patriotic jersey giveaway to the first 1,000 fans.