Courtesy Vermont Lake Monsters

TROY, NY —Vermont starter Jhenderson Hurtado allowed just one hit over five innings, but also threw four wild pitches that helped the Tri-City ValleyCats plate a pair of runs in a 4-2 victory over the Lake Monsters in New York-Penn League action Thursday night at Bruno Stadium.

Jermey Pena got the ValleyCats only hit off Hurtado with a one-out double in the fourth inning, then scored on a pair of two-out Hurtado wild pitches to give Tri-City a 1-0 lead. Hurtado then walked Michael Wielansky to start the fifth and threw a couple of wild pitches to advance Wielansky around to third, where he scored on a Alex Holderbach sacrifice fly to center for a 2-0 ValleyCats advantage.

Tri-City starter Bryan Abreu allowed just one hit, a Jose Rivas infield single in the third, and one walk over four innings while striking out nine. He struckout the side in the first inning, then record two strikeouts in each of his other three innings of work.

Vermont cut the two-run deficit in half with a run in the top of the sixth off reliever Shawn Dubin when Joseph Pena led off with a walk and advanced to third on a single from Jameson Hannah, who has now hit safely in each of his last 13 games started. Anthony Churlin followed with a sacrifice fly to center to plate Pena.

Tri-City got the run right back in bottom of sixth as Gilberto Celestino led off the inning with a ground-rule double off reliever Brandon Marsonek and later scored from third during a rundown of Alex McKenna on a pickoff/caught stealing, but the Lake Monsters again cut the deficit to one as Jeremy Eierman connected on his second home run of the season, this a solo shot in the top of the seventh.

Celestino restored the two-run lead for the ValleyCats in the bottom of the eighth with a leadoff home run off Lake Monsters reliver Jeferson Mejia and Tri-City closer Tim Hardy retired Vermont 1-2-3 in the ninth for his second save.

Hurtado (1-2) allowed the two runs on just one hit with two walks and five strikeouts over five innings, while Brandon Marsonek and Mejia both were charged with one run allowed. Shawn Dubin (1-0) and Brett Daniels both allowed one run over two innings of relief for Tri-City (10-10), which moves back to one game behind Vermont (11-9) for first-place in Stedler Division.

The Lake Monsters have won three of the first five in the home-and-home six-game series with the ValleyCats, which will conclude at Tri-City on Friday night at 7:00 pm. Vermont then returns to historic Centennial Field for a three-game series against Connecticut Saturday (6:05), Sunday (5:05) and Monday (7:05).