Baseball: Monsters Drop 4th Straight, 5-2 to Connecticut

Posted on by George Commo

Courtesy Vermont Lake Monsters

BURLINGTON — The Connecticut Tigers snapped a 2-2 tie with three unearned runs in the top of the fourth inning for a 5-2 New York-Penn League victory over the Vermont Lake Monsters Sunday evening at historic Centennial Field.

Connecticut got single runs in the top of the first and second innings, including the first-inning run coming on a Sam McMillan triple followed by a Darwin Alvarado sacrifice fly. The triple, which came on a liner to left that got past the dive of Payton Squier, was just the second three-bagger for a Lake Monsters opponent this season.

Vermont tied the game in the bottom of the second on a pair of sacrifice flies from Max Schuemann and Joseph Pena. The Lake Monsters had loaded the bases with no outs on an error, walk and Devin Foyle line drive single to right. The Foyle base hit was the last for Vermont until a pair of singles in the sixth and one of just four in the contest.

The Tigers scored the three unearned run in the fourth with the help of a couple of Lake Monster errors to take the 5-2 lead. Jose King and Reece Hampton had RBI singles in the inning off Vermont starter Abdiel Mendoza (2-2), who was charged with five runs (just one earned) on eight hits with a walk and four strikeouts over five innings.

Brady Feigl had two walks and five strikeouts in 2 2/3 hitless innings of relief after taking over for Mendoza to start the sixth. The 2018 fifth-round pick out of Missisippi struckout four of the last five batters he faced (1-2-3 seventh and first two batters of eighth).

Tigers starter Jose Vasquez (3-1) allowed two unearned runs on two hits with a walk and two strikeouts over five innings. Vermont loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth and two runners on base with two outs in seventh, but were unable to score either inning to keep Connecticut lead at three as Tiger relievers combined to retire the final eight Lake Monster batters.

King was 2-for-4 with a run and RBI for Connecticut (11-12), which has won four straight games. Vermont has now scored just 17 runs in its last seven games (after scoring 46 in previous five contests) and are hitting just .178 (39-for-219) over that seven-game span.

The Lake Monsters have now lost four straight games to fall to 11-12 overall, the first time Vermont is under .500 since starting the season 0-1. Vermont will look to get back to the .500 mark when they wrap up the three-game homestand vs. Connecticut on Monday starting at 7:05 pm.