Vermont Wins Wild One 11-8 On Saturday

WESTFIELD, MA --- The Lake Monsters scored eight times in the top of the first inning on just three hits, including two of Pat Desalvo’s four on the night, as Vermont held off the Westfield Starfires 11-8 in Futures League action Saturday at Bullens Field.

After the final six Vermont batters Friday night recorded base hits in the eighth inning of a 12-2 mercy rule victory over Worcester, the Lake Monsters opened Saturday’s game with seven consecutive batters reaching base safely (one hit, six walks) before the Starfires recorded an out.

Five walks with the bases loaded gave Vermont a 5-0 lead before a Desalvo (Georgetown) two-run single and Noah Granet (Princeton) an RBI single for the 8-0 lead. Desalvo ended the night 4-for-5 with a walk, two runs scored and two RBI, while Granet and Darren Hagan (Coppin State) both had hits to extend hitting streaks to eight straight games to open the season.

Westfield responded with four runs of its own in the bottom of the first and added another in the second, while reliever Aidan Dunn had a stretch of nine strikeouts while retiring 12 of 14 Lake Monsters before a Hagan RBI single gave Vermont a 9-5 lead.

The Lake Monsters added two more runs in the seventh on one single and four walks, including two with the bases loaded. For the night, every Vermont batter had at least one walk and one strikeout (14 walks and 17 strikeouts overall), while Lake Monster pitchers had eight walks and eight strikeouts.

Vermont reliever Anthony Panza (Framingham State) allowed one run on three hits with two walks and four strikeouts over four innings to earn his first win of the season. Middlebury High School graduate Wyatt Cameron (New England College) two runs on five hits over three innings.

The teams will wrap up the two-game series at Westfield 3:00pm on Sunday before the Lake Monsters return to historic Centennial Field for a two-game series against the New Britian Bees 7:05 pm Tuesday and Wednesday.