Vermont Beats State College 8-2 Sunday

BURLINGTON, VT --- Some say that a New York-Penn League game has two phases, the first being the four to six innings that a starter pitches followed by the three to five relief innings. Those phases were never more evident than Sunday evening at historic Centennial Field as the Vermont Lake Monsters were held to just one hit over the first six innings before exploding for eight runs on 10 hits in the seventh and eighth for an 8-2 victory over the State College Spikes.

State College took a 2-0 lead in the third with two runs off Vermont starter Tyler Vail, making his first start of the season for the Lake Monsters. Meanwhile Spikes starter Clay Holmes held Vermont to just one hit, a two-out Chris Bostwick single in the third, over the first five innings. State College reliever Josh Smith took over in the sixth and quickly set the Lake Monsters down 1-2-3 in the inning, then retired Bruce Maxwell on a groundout to open the seventh.

But that is when the Vermont offense awoke with three straight singles, including a two-run line drive single to center from Rhett Stafford to tie the game at two. A couple of errors moved Stafford to third, where he scored on a Austin Booker suicide squeeze for a 3-2 Vermont lead. Kyle Haynes relieved Smith and retired the final two batters of the seventh, but did not retire any of the seven batters he faced in the eighth.

Brett Vertigan led off the inning with a single and moved to second on a Jacob Tanis walk before the Lake Monsters put together six straight singles to score five runs. Maxwell, Chad Lewis, Stafford, Booker and Kelvin Rojas all had RBI singles among the six hits.

After Vail allowed the two runs (one earned) on five hits over four innings, the Vermont bullpen continued its good work of late. Logan Chitwood allowed one hit in two scoreless innings, while Stuart Pudenz (2-0) struckout four in two hitless innings for the win and Austin House added a strikeout in a scoreless ninth. Stafford was 2-for-4 with three RBI, while Lewis and Solano each had two hits and two runs scored.

D.J. Crumlich and Ryan Hornback both had two hits for State College (11-10), while Smith (0-1) was charged with three runs in 1 1/3 innings to take the loss. Vermont (13-8) has won three straight and five of its last six to move five games over .500 for the first time this season.

The Lake Monsters wrap up their six-game homestand on Monday night beginning at 7:05 pm against State College with the first of two 25-cent "Hot Dog Heaven" nights courtesy of McKenzie's this season at Centennial.