Baseball: Monsters Roll to 9-3 Win at State College

Posted on by George Commo

Courtesy Vermont Lake Monsters

STATE COLLEGE, PA — Marty Bechina went 4-for-5 with an RBI double, while Kyle McCann and Noah Vaughan both hit two-run homers as the Vermont Lake Monsters opened a six-game roadtrip with a 9-3 New York-Penn League victory over State College Tuesday night at Medlar Field.

After scoring just one run in each of their three losses to Brooklyn at Centennial Field over the weekend, the Lake Monsters scored twice in the first inning Tuesday on a McCann opposite field two-out, two-run homer down the left-field line for his fourth home run of season.

After the Spikes got a run back in the second, Vermont restored the two-run lead in the third as Logan Davidson led off the inning with a double and scored on a one-out RBI single to right from McCann. Another State College run in the third was followed by a Jordan Diaz leadoff double and Kevin Richards two-out RBI double in the fifth for a 4-2 Lake Monsters lead.

Vermont built advantage to 8-2 with four runs in the sixth as Bechina picked up his third hit of the game with his RBI double and then scored on Vaughan’s deep two-run homer to right field. Later in inning McCann picked up his fourth RBI of the night, scoring Davidson (two walks, three runs) from third on a one-out groundball to second base.

Leudeny Pineda (1-0) allowed one run on two hits with no walks and six strikeouts over five innings of relief to earn the victory in his Lake Monsters debut. Vermont sarter Michael Murray had given up two runs on four hits over first three innings, while Spikes starter Junior Gonzalez (2-3) three runs on six hits over first 3 1/3 innings to take the loss.

McCann and Diaz (two walks) both had two hits as the Lake Monsters, who had 10 total hits in the Brooklyn series, finished the night with 12 hits including four doubles to go along with the two homers (Vermont now 4-0 when hitting two homers in a games this season).

Vermont (17-27) and State College (22-22) will play the second of the three-game series 7:05 pm on Wednesday before a 12:05 pm start in finale on Thursday before Lake Monsters head to Aberdeen.