Courtesy Vermont Lake Monsters
WAPPINGERS FALLS, NY — The Hudson Valley Renegades snapped a 5-5 tie on a Jacson McGowan sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth inning and held on to beat the Vermont Lake Monsters 6-5 in New York-Penn League action Friday night at Dutchess Stadium.
Since September 1, 2016 the Lake Monsters have now gone 4-8 in 12 games played at Hudson Valley with each of the eight losses coming by just one run (including five walkoff victories for the Renegades).
The Lake Monsters jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on an RBI single from Noah Vaughan, the first professional base hit for Oakland’s 12th-round pick out of the University of Texas-Arlington.
Vermont starter Abdiel Mendoza retired the first seven batters he faced, but struggled after getting a strikeout to start the third inning. Mendoza allowed a one-out walk, had a throwing error on pickoff attempt, RBI single, hit by pitch, RBI single, walk, sacrifice fly and two-run single as the Renegades plated five runs for a 5-1 lead.
The Lake Monsters stormed back with four runs of their own in the fifth inning starting with an Javier Godard leadoff double. Payton Squier got the scoring started one-out later with an RBI single and Marcos Brito scored on a wild pitch cutting the deficit to 5-3. Vermont added another run on an RBI single from Anthony Churlin, who then tied the game by scoring from third before Aaron Arruda was tagged out at second base on stolen base attempt.
After Hudson Valley retook the lead in the sixth on McGowan’s second sacrifice fly of the game, Vermont got a runner to second on a stolen base with two outs in both the seventh and eighth before a strikeout ended both innings.
Mendoza’s night ended with six runs allowed on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts over 4 1/3 innings to take the loss. Churlin was 2-for-5 with two runs and an RBI, while Squier was 2-for-5 (now 10-for-16 over his last four games) with a run and RBI for Vermont (5-3).
Tanner Dodson was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI for Hudson Valley (5-3), while reliever Joe Ryan (1-0) three strikeouts over two scoreless innings for win. Simon Rosenblum-Larson recorded seven strikeouts over 2 2/3 scoreless innings to earn his first save.
Vermont will try and salvage one of the three games in the series at Hudson Valley on Saturday beginning at 7:05 pm before moving on to Aberdeen for a three-game series against the Ironbirds. The Lake Monsters return to historic Centennial Field on Thursday to begin a six-game homestand June 30-July 3.