Courtesy Vermont Lake Monsters
BURLINGTON — After falling behind 6-0 in the top of the first inning, the Vermont Lake Monsters rallied to tie the game in both the bottom of the ninth and 10th innings before scoring the winning run in the 12th inning on a Jeremy Eierman double for a 10-9 New York-Penn League victory over the Brooklyn Cyclones Sunday evening at historic Centennial Field.
Brooklyn scored six times in the top of the first inning, including a Ross Adolph leadoff homer and Chase Chambers RBI single before three straight walks forced home two more runs and ended the game after just 1/3 for Vermont starter Jose Mora. Manny Rodriguez greeted reliever Brandon Marsonek with an RBI single to left and Adolph followed with a sacrifce fly to cap off the six-run, five-hit frame.
The Lake Monsters cut the deficit in half with one run in the second and two more in the fourth, including a Nick Osborne RBI double that reduced the Cyclones lead to 6-3. Vermont reliever Caleb Evans worked out of a second-and-third no-out jam in the fifth with three consecutive strikeouts, but then gave up a 424-foot two-run homer to Carlos Cortes in the sixth inning that gave Brooklyn an 8-3 lead.
Aaron Arruda answered the Cyclones two-run homer in the top of the sixth with a three-run homer of his own in the bottom of the sixth, a two-out 421-blast to center for his third home run of the season. Jonah Bride made it a one-run game in the seventh when he grounded an 0-2 pitch into centerfield for an RBI single cutting Brooklyn lead to 8-7.
Vermont tied the game in the ninth when Joseph Pena led off with a double and advanced to third on a Marcos Brito infield single. After a pop up to short for the first out Pena scored to tie the game on a balk by Brooklyn’s Ezequiel Zabaleta, who struckout the final two batters with the winning run on second to send game to extra innings.
Each team scored a run in the 10th, including an RBI single from Vermont’s J.J. Schwarz to tie the game 9-9. After a scoreless 11th for both teams and a scoreless top 12th for Brooklyn, the Lake Monsters won the game when Eierman led off with a flyball to leftcenter that was misplayed by leftfielder Wayne Lagrange into a walkoff double.
Four Vermont relievers combined to allow three runs (two earned) on seven hits with 12 strikeouts over the final 11 2/3 innings. Oscar Tovar (4-1) tossed the final three innings for the win, allowing just an unearned run in the 10th on no hits, two walks and two strikeouts, after Jeferson Mejia one hit and five strikeouts over 3 1/3 scoreless innings.
Eierman and Max Schuemann both had three hits for Vermont (34-34), which has won five straight games to get back to the .500 mark. Bride, who has now hit in nine straight games, went 2-for-6 with three runs, a double and an RBI.
Adolph and Cortes both had two hits, two runs scored and two RBI for Brooklyn (36-31), while Cyclones starter Jaison Vilera (league-leader in ERA and strikeouts) six runs (two earned) on seven hits with six strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings and Andrew Mitchell (1-1) was charged with the unearned run in 12th to take the loss.
The Lake Monsters and Cyclones will play the second of the three-game series on Monday at 7:05 pm before Vermont wraps up the quick three-game homestand with Brooklyn on Tuesday.