Baseball: Vaughn, Cohen Lead Monsters Past Staten Island 10-3

Posted on by George Commo

Courtesy Vermont Lake Monsters

STATEN ISLAND, NY — Noah Vaughan led a 12-hit Vermont attack with three hits including a solo homer, Chase Cohen tossed five scoreless innings and the Lake Monsters broke open a one-run lead with six runs in the eighth for a 10-3 New York-Penn League victory over the Staten Island Yankees Wednesday night at Richmond County Bank Ballpark.

Vaughan gave Vermont a 1-0 lead with his first professional home run with one out in the top of the third inning. The 12th-round pick out of Texas-Arlington fouled off three straight 3-2 pitches before crushing the next pitch high over the outfield fence in right.

Drew Finley came on in relief of Yankees starter Drew Hutchison to start the fifth and struckout the first two Lake Monsters before having control issues. After a Max Schuemann walk, Vaughan bunt single and a Jose Rivas walk, Finley forced home three staight runners when he hit Joseph Pena, walked Marcos Brito and hit Alfonso Rivas for a 4-0 Vermont lead. Reliever Kyle Johnson got the final out with the third strikeout of the inning.

Vermont starter Chase Cohen (2-2) allowed just one hit (a leadoff bunt single in the second) and struckout four over five scoreless innings. Only other baserunner Cohen allowed came on a one-out error in the fourth (runner was out trying to advance to second). Cohen finishes regular season with 0.00 ERA (0 ER-20 IP) in six road appearances, while a 10.66 ERA (15 ER-12.2 IP) in six outings at Centennial Field.

Staten Island greeted reliever Chris Kohler with three straight hits to start the bottom of the sixth, including a Junior Soto RBI double and Alex Junior RBI single. Eric Wagaman then led off the seventh with his fifth home run of the season to cut the the Lake Monsters lead to 4-3. Kohler settled down after the home run, retiring eight of the final 10 batters to earn his first save.

The six-run Vermont eighth was highlighted by a Nick Osborne two-run souble and Pena two-run triple for the 10-3 lead. It marked the fourth time this year that the Lake Monsters have scored six or more runs in an inning, while the sixth time that Vermont has scored 10 or more runs in a game (most since seven times during 2011 season).

Vaughan went 3-for-4 with two runs, the solo homer and two RBI, while Jonah Bride extended his hitting streak to 12 straight games with a 2-for-5 night. Both Eierman and Osborne went 2-for-5 with a run scored, while Schueman and Jose Rivas both scored two times. Pena was 1-for-4 with three RBI and Alfonso Rivas 1-for-5 with two RBI.

After Hutchison allowed one run over first four innings, three Yankee relievers allowed nine runs on 10 hits over the final five innings as Staten Island (35-33) saw its team ERA rise from a league-best 2.49 to 2.61 overall. Jackson Thoreson had two of the Yankees six hits in the contest.

Vermont (36-35), which has won seven of its last eighth and nine of 12, remain 3 1/2 games behind Stedler Division leading Tri-City and 2 1/2 games behind wild card leader Brooklyn with five games left in the regular season. The Lake Monsters play at Staten Island again 7:00 pm Thursday and Friday before returning to Centennial for final three games of regular-season vs. the ValleyCats Saturday-Monday.