Baseball: Lowell Crushes Vermont Playoff Hopes With 7-3 Win Over Monsters

Courtesy Vermont Lake Monsters

BURLINGTON — Eight straight Lowell batters reached base safely over the third and fourth innings as the Spinners scored seven times in a 7-3 victory over the Vermont Lake Monsters in New York-Penn League action Friday night at historic Centennial Field.

Vermont starter Yorlenis Noa (1-6) retired each of the first eight Spinners in order before allowing a two-out walk in the third inning. Noa was then unable to retire the next seven Lowell hitters as he allowed a single and RBI single before a Cameron Cannon two-run double to give the Spinners a 3-1 lead (Cannon was thrown out trying to advance to third to end inning).

Lowell began the fourth inning with three straight singles to load the bases before a Nick Northcut two-run double down the right-field line ended the night for Noa. The Spinners added two more runs in the inning on a wild pitch by reliever Austin Briggs and Marino Campana RBI single for a 7-1 lead.

The Lake Monsters had taken a 1-0 lead in the second on a Jose Rivas RBI single scoring Kevin Richards with the first run allowed this season by Lowell starter Noah Song (entered game with 11 consecutive scoreless innings in first five starts).

Game stayed 7-1 until the bottom of the eighth when Vermont plated a pair of runs on Marty Bechina RBI single to center and an RBI single to right by Jordan Diaz for his league-leading 45th of the season.

Yasel Santana (2-4) allowed three hits and struckout five over four scoreless innings of relief to earn the victory for Lowell, while Antoni Flores and Jaxx Groshans both had two hits for the Spinners. Richards and Logan Davidson both went 2-for-4 with a run scored for the Lake Monsters.

The loss snapped a four-game home winning streak for Vermont (30-36 and dropped the Lake Monsters six games behind Stedler-Division leading Lowell (36-30) with 10 games remaining in the regular season.

The Lake Monsters and Spinners will wrap up the homestand 6:05pm Saturday and will be followed by the final post-game fireworks show of the season.