Vermont Drops Game 1 FCBL Finals Tuesday
boxscore BURLINGTON, VT --- Pittsfield hit three home runs, including a pair of three-run homers, and three Suns pitchers combined on a four-hitter to take game one of the best-of-three Futures League Championship Series with a 10-2 victory over the Vermont Lake Monsters Tuesday night in front of 1,576 at
BURLINGTON, VT --- Pittsfield hit three home runs, including a pair of three-run homers, and three Suns pitchers combined on a four-hitter to take game one of the best-of-three Futures League Championship Series with a 10-2 victory over the Vermont Lake Monsters Tuesday night in front of 1,576 at historic Centennial Field.
The Suns got a run without the benefit of a hit in the top of the first inning as Vermont starter Francis Ferguson (Eastern Nazarene) allowed a leadoff walk followed by back-to-back one-out walks and a run-scoring hit by pitch.
Cabot Maher led off the third with a solo homer to left for the only hit allowed by Lake Monsters reliever Silas Reed (Tufts) over 3 2/3 innings with one walk and six strikeouts. Pittfield made it 3-0 in the sixth on an Anton Lazits one-out RBI double to left.
After the Lake Monsters defense turned a nifty double play to end the top of the sixth when catcher Connor Pettit (Trinity) made a diving catch of a foul pop near the backstop and threw to third to get a runner trying to advance from second. Brian Schuab (Trinity) then led off the bottom of the sixth with a home run to left.
Pittsfield started pulling away in the seventh as Jack Thorbahn blasted a three-run homer to left off Leif Bigelow (UMaine) for a 6-1 lead and added a sacrifice fly in the eighth.
Schuab led off the bottom of the eighth with another leadoff homer. It marked the first time a Lake Monsters player has had a two-homer game since Russell Moldenhauer had two homers at Centennial June 30, 2010 and Marcus Jones two homers at Lowell the next day (July 1, 2010).
The Suns closed out the scoring with their second three-run homer, a blast to leftcenter by Anton Lazits who was 2-for-4 with two runs, double, homer and four RBI for Pittsfield. Thorbahn also had four RBI on the night while starter Gabe Feeney allowed two hits with four walks over the first five innings to earn the win.
Vermont will look to even the series 6:35pm Wednesday at Pittsfield. If the Lake Monsters win, the third-and-deciding game will take place at Centennial 7:05pm Thursday.