Vermont Nips Brooklyn 2-1 On Thursday

BURLINGTON, VT --- With a pair of runs in the second inning and solid pitching from a trio of hurlers, the Vermont Lake Monsters squeaked by the Brooklyn Cyclones 2-1 in New York-Penn League action Thursday night at historic Centennial Field.

With a runner on first and one out in the second, Nick Collins lined an RBI double to right-centerfield and scored when Steven Pallares followed with an RBI triple deep to rightcenter for a 2-0 Vermont lead. After three hits in the second inning, the Lake Monsters had just three more hits over the next six innings but were able to keep the lead behind the pitching of Bubba Derby, Corey Miller and John Gorman.

Derby tossed three hitless innings with two walks and four strikeouts to lower his ERA to 0.87 for the season. Derby retired the first five batters he faced before allowing a two-out walk in the second inning, then walked the leadoff batter of the third before getting out of the inning with a double play and strikeout. The sixth-round pick out of San Diego State has now allowed just two runs on 10 hits with five walks and 23 strikeouts over 20 2/3 innings in his seven appearances for Vermont.

Miller came on in relief in the fourth inning with a 1-2-3 inning to give Vermont pitchers eight straight innings without allowing a hit (Dustin Driver held Staten Island hitless in final four innings on Wednesday. The Cyclones got an unearned run in the top of the fifth as Jeff Diehl reached on a leadoff fielding error, then scored after back-to-back singles from Hengelbert Rojas and Jose Garcia. Miller (1-3) finished his outing with one unearned run on three hits with four strikeouts over four innings for his first win of the season.

Gorman took over for Miller in the eighth and walked Rojas to open the inning, but then got a groundout and a pair of strikeouts to keep the lead at 2-1. The Cyclones got a leadoff single in the ninth, but Gorman got a flyball for the first out and then catcher Nick Collins gunned down Vinny Siena trying to steal second base for the second out. Gorman then struckout David Thompson to end the game and pick up his first professional save.

Pallares had two of the Lake Monsters six hits on the night, while Cyclones starter Andrew Church (1-3) allowed two runs on six hits with two walks and two strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings to take the loss for Brooklyn (23-22).

The victory was just the fifth in the last 22 games for Vermont against Brooklyn, while snapping an eight-game Centennial Field losing streak to the Cyclones. The Lake Monsters had not beaten Brooklyn at home since August 18, 2012 before the 2-1 win on Thursday, which also gave Vermont its fourth two-game winning streak of the season.

Vermont (19-26) will look for its first three-game winning streak of the season on Friday night when they host the Cyclones starting at 7:05 pm. It is the annual "Summer of Love" at Centennial with a tie-dye baseball giveaway for the first 500 fans.