Courtesy Vermont Lake Monsters

NORWICH, CT — Cooper Johnson’s three-run double in the bottom of the fifth inning helped lead the Connecticut Tigers to a 6-4 New York-Penn League victory and hand the Vermont Lake Monsters its sixth straight loss Thursday night at Dodd Stadium.

The Lake Monsters had just taken a 4-2 lead in the top of the fifth on a Nick Osborne sacrifice fly and a run-scoring two-out error, but the Tigers responded with four runs in the bottom of the inning.

Vermont reliever Yorlenis Noa (0-2), who had walked just one batter over his first 15 innings this season, struggled with his control in the fifth with 3 walks. He started the inning with a pair of base on balls, single to load the bases and a sac fly. After Noa’s third walk reloaded the bases, Johnson lined the one-out three-run double to center for the 6-4 lead.

The Lake Monsters had picked up their first hit with a runner in scoring position since last Friday when Jordan Diaz singled home Michael Woodworth from second base with two outs in the first inning to snap an 0-for-19 RISP skid.Tigers tied game with unearned run bottom first and tied game again in third with another unearned run after Vermont took 2-1 lead top of third.

Ryan Kriedler was 2-for-2 with three runs scored for Connecticut (8-11), while Austin Anderson (1-0) tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief for win and Tyler Hess scoreless ninth for second save.

Jordan Diaz was 3-for-5 with a pair of RBI for Vermont, while Michael Woodworth and Logan Davidson both scored two runs. The Lake Monsters finished with just five hits in the game to drop team batting average below the .200 mark (.198). Four Vermont pitchers combined to also allow just five hits, but also issued seven walks.

Vermont (8-12) has lost six straight for the first time since August 10-18, 2018 (Lake Monsters would win 12 of next 17) and will look to avoid their longest losing streak since 2016 when they play the second of the three-game series at Connecticut 7:05pm on Friday.