Oldham Shines In 4-3 Vermont Win Thursday

BURLINGTON, VT --- Daniel Carinci’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth inning snapped a 3-3 tie as the Vermont Lake Monsters opened a two-game series against Brockton with a 4-3 Futures League victory Thursday night at historic Centennial Field.

Brockton had tied the game 3-3 with a pair of runs in the top of the eighth before the Lake Monsters opened the bottom of the eighth with back-to-back walks. After a throwing error on a pickoff attempt and a one-out intentional walk, Carinci hit the first pitch he saw as a pinch hitter to left deep enough to score pinch runner Francis Ferguson with the go ahead run.

The Lake Monsters took taken a 2-0 lead in the second inning on an M.J. Metz (Trinity U) RBI single and an Andrew Bergeron (Georgetown) bases loaded walk. Vermont took a 3-1 lead in the seventh on a Justin Rubin (Virginia) two-out RBI single.

Vermont starter Bill Oldham threw six scoreless innings before departing after allowing a leadoff infield single and one-out walk in the seventh. The Rox scored an unearned run in the inning on a passed ball, but reliever Sammy Conte (Trinity U) got back-to-back strikeouts with the tying run on second.

The unearned run snapped a 19-inning scoreless streak for Oldham. The right-hander out of Eastern Connecticut State has now allowed just one run (none earned) on nine hits with three walks and 15 strikeouts in 19.1 innings over his last four starts.

Metz and Darren Hagan (Coppn State) both had two hits for Vermont (13-17), while David Vial two walks and two strikeouts in a scoreless ninth for his third save of the season. Pat Roche had two hits and an RBI for Brockton (18-11), while Ryan Bruening allowed one run over five innings of relief.

The Lake Monsters and Rox will wrap up the two-game series at Centennial 7:05pm on Friday as Vermont enters a strech with 19 of 26 games at home July 1st to 30th.