BURLINGTON, VT – In a wild game that featured pretty much everything and took nearly four hours to complete, the Vermont Lake Monsters beat the Westfield Starfires 11-10 with a walk-off base hit in the bottom of the ninth late Friday night at Centennial Field in Burlington, Vermont.
The Starfires drop the first game in a three-game set to the Lake Monsters, falling to 4-5 on the season. Vermont gets its win streak up to three games, topping the standings with a 6-3 record. The Lake Monsters have now scored 11 runs in back-to-back games after a rough start to the season offensively.
The two Boston College Eagles got things going for the Starfires in the first with Ben Williams drawing a leadoff walk and John Mass hitting a single through the right side. The next batter, Josh Frometa, was plunked with a pitch to load the bases with nobody out.
Two batters later, Lake Monster pitcher Romel Roca balked to bring Williams across home as the Starfires struck first. Vermont was able to limit the damage with two infield pop outs and a flyball, but the Starfires still took a 1-0 lead.
Just like the Starfires, the first two Lake Monsters reached in their first at-bats. After starter Cole Raymond got a strikeout, the next batter hit a ground ball to short, and Westfield got the force at second, but threw it away trying to get the double play at first. The miscue plated a run, and the two teams were even at one after the first inning.
In the second, Northeastern Husky Cooper Tarantino reached with a walk, stole second, and then Williams came through with an RBI double down the right field line. Mass proceeded to reach on a throwing error, and Williams’ speed was on display as the Hanover, New Hampshire native scored from second and the Starfires led 3-1.
The Lake Monsters did some damage in their half of the second as the first six hitters reached, and the home team had a two-run lead, 5-3. After a pitching change, Vermont added two more after a double and a wild pitch, and suddenly were leading 7-3.
Former Maine Blackbear Evan Menzel came up to bat in the third and drove a ball into the left-center gap. The two Vermont outfielders both dived for the ball and missed it, and the ball got to the wall. Menzel rounded third and easily made his way around to home for a stand-up inside-the-park home run. It was the second straight game a Starfire had a four-base hit, and Westfield trailed 7-4.
The score stayed where it was until the top of the sixth inning, when Kacin Robinson began with a walk and then swiped both second and third. Mass then came through with a single to score Robinson, and the lead for the Lake Monsters was trimmed to 7-5.
However, Vermont immediately responded in the bottom of the sixth with a three-run blast to find double figures and bring the game to 10-5.
Action on the bases continued into the top of the seventh, starting with a double from Ohio product Caleb Karll and a single from Northeastern Husky Anthony Ruggiero. Ruggiero’s teammate at Northeastern, Tarantino, drove in the first run of the frame with a fielder’s choice groundball. After, Columbia’s Jimmy Chadwell singled and Williams drew a free pass to load the bases.
The Starfires elected to bring pinch hitter Van Liott off the bench. After an eight-pitch plate appearance, the Holy Cross product won the battle by dropping a double down the left field line, scoring all three runners on base on Liott’s first hit of the season. The Starfires got as close as they had been since the second inning, now only down 10-9.
After Westfield State Owl Sean McNamara tossed a shutout seventh, Ruggiero had his second hit of the night with a two-out single up the middle with two outs in the eighth. Cole Silvia came in to pinch run, and Jonathon Chatfield came in to pinch hit. With Chatfield at the dish, Silvia made it to third after two wild pitches put the tying run 90 feet away.
The Keene State product Chatfield came through in the clutch with a game-tying single to tie it at 10 as a pinch hitter delivered for the Starfires for the second straight inning. Chatfield grabbed his sixth RBI of the season, which leads the team and puts him in a tie for third in the league.
The game remained tied up into the bottom of the ninth, where Vermont drew back-to-back walks and a wild pitch to put the winning run on third. After an intentional walk to load them up, Sam Covossa hit a ball just past the reach of Menzel at short to give the Lake Monsters the 11-10 win in walk-off fashion with the single.
Liott, Mass, Ruggiero, and Chadwell all had two hits on the night, highlighted by Liott’s three-run double. Williams reached base safely with a double and three walks while Menzel was on three times after his inside-the-park home run and two free passes.
McNamara had a decent appearance on the mound, going two innings with one earned run and five strikeouts. The Lowell, Massachusetts native is now tied for sixth in the FCBL with nine strikeouts on the season despite only having pitched four innings.
The Starfires will continue the three-game set with the Lake Monsters with game two June 7 at 6:05 p.m.
Tickets to all Starfires home games can be found at www.westfieldstarfires.com.
