Vermont Beats Tigers 5-3 On Monday

BURLINGTON, VT --- Strong Vermont pitching and a five-run fourth inning gave the Vermont Lake Monsters a 5-3 victory over the Connecticut Tigers in New York-Penn League action Monday night at historic Centennial Field.

The Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a solo home run in second from Matt Mansilla and added two unearned runs in the top of the fourth off Vermont starter Graham Hicks, who cam down from Hagerstown of the South Atlantic League to make a spot start for the Lake Monsters.

Stephen King got the fourth inning rally started with a leadoff double to centerfield. After a walk to Wade Moore, Jason Martinson put down a sacrifice bunt and was safe at first when Tiger pitcher Josue Carreno was unable to field the ball to load the bases.

Carreno (0-1) then had trouble finding home plate as he walked Rick Hughes and Jack Walker back-to-back to force home the first two runs for Vermont. One out later Blake Kelso tied the game with an RBI single through the right side to score Martinson and then Carreno's night.

Reliever Michael Torrealba came in and promptly threw a wild pitch allowing Hughes to score with the go ahead run for Vermont and Chad Mozingo then lined a sacrifice fly to leftfield to plate Walker with the fifth run of the inning.

Hicks (1-0), who went 2-5 with a 7.12 ERA for the Lake Monsters in 2009, came back out in the fifth and struckout the side to end his evening. Over his five frames, Hicks allowed three runs (one earned) on three hits with no walks and eight strikeouts. In the first four games of the season Vermont starting pitchers have now allowed just two earned runs over 19 1/3 innings (0.93 ERA).

Lake Monsters reliever Ben Graham gave up two hits over two scoreless innings, while Colin Bates gave up one walk and struckout three in two hitless innings for his first save. Both Graham and Bates were making their professsional debuts in the game for Vermont.

Kelso went 3-for-4 with an RBI for Vermont, while Martinson was 2-for-3 with a run scored. Josh Ashenbrenner had an RBI double for the Tigers in the fourth inning that gave Connecticut the short lived three-run lead.

Vermont (3-1) and Connecticut (2-2) will wrap up the two-game series at Centennial Field on Tuesday beginning at 7:05 pm with Bobby Hansen starting for the Lake Monsters. It is Nationwide Night at the park with a NASCAR Nationwide series car on the concourse.