Baseball: Vermont Offense Comes Alive in 10-2 Win Over Brooklyn

Courtesy Vermont Lake Monsters

BURLINGTON — Marty Bechina went 2-for-4 with a two-run homer and two-run double, while Logan Davidson and Dustin Harris each had three hits as the Vermont Lake Monsters snapped a four-game losing streak with a 10-2 victory over the Brooklyn Cyclones in New York-Penn League action Wednesday night at historic Centennial Field.

Vermont, which was held to just three runs and 10 hits in three-game series sweep by Brooklyn July 26-28 at Centennial, had three runs over the first three innings on Wednesday as Bechina lined a 389-foot two-run homer to left in the second and Logan Davidson a 374-foot solo home run to right in the third for a 3-1 Lake Monsters lead.

RBI singles from Dustin Harris and Jordan Diaz (league-leading 42 RBI) kicked off a fiive-run, five-hit bottom of the fifth inning for Vermont. Lawrence Butler made it 6-1 with a bases loaded sacrifice fly before Bechina lined a two-run double to left for his third and fourth RBI of the night.

Three straight singles including a Butler RBI single opened the sixth inning and Josh Watson added a two-out RBI infield single for a 10-1 advantage. Davidson (two runs) and Harris both went 3-for-5, while Diaz (two walks), Bechina, Butler and Watson each had two of Vermont’s 15 hits.

Lake Monsters starter Michael Murray (3-0) allowed one run on four hits with one walk and two strikeouts over five innings for the victory, making him the first Vermont starter to earn a win since June 18th and just the third all season (Murray picked up win June 14th in his first start of the year).

Alexander Pantuso, making his first appearance for Vermont after promotion from Arizona League, struckout five of the six batters he faced in two perfect innings of relief. Gavin Garay (two doubles) and Jake Ortega each had two hits for Brooklyn (32-25), while Nate Jones (0-1) took the loss.

The win was the 499th Centennial Field victory all-time for Vermont (26-33), which will look to pick up win #500 on Thursday as they host Brooklyn in the second of the three-game series on First Responders Night at the ballpark.