New England Lobster Rolls Walk Off Vermont in 12th

NORWICH, Ct. - For the second night in a row, the New England Lobster Rolls, a.k.a. Connecticut Tigers (14-14), walked off during extra innings as Isrrael De La Cruz played hero with a sacrifice fly to center that scored Darwin Alvarado from third base in the 12th inning to cap off a 5-4 win over the Vermont Lake Monsters (14-14) on Saturday at Dodd Stadium.

The Tigers celebrated New England Night by wearing one-time-only New England Lobster Rolls uniforms and picked up their fifth walkoff win since June 28. 

Alvarado was placed at second base as the tie-breaking runner in the eleventh and advanced to third on a Gresuan Silverio sacrifice bunt. After two intentional walks issued by Chris Kohler (Loss, 1-1), De La Cruz skied a ball to Devin Foyle, who came up throwing in center but Alvarado slid home without a play at the plate.

In the top of the eleventh, Alvarado made the defensive play of the game. When Max Schuemann tried to advance from second to third on a flyout, Alvarado erased the runner in scoring position with a throw from right field to third base where Yomar Valentin applied the tag to preserve a 3-3 tie.

Drew Crosby (Win, 3-0) pitched two scoreless innings in extras with one walk and two strikeouts to pick up his third win, matching starter Jose Vasquez for the team lead.

Vermont and New England traded runs in the tenth as both clubs scored their tie-breaking runners from second base. De La Cruz tied the game, 4-4, with an RBI groundout to the shortstop and finished with a team-best three runs batted in for the Lobster Rolls.

New England forced extras with a two-run rally in the ninth. Trailing 3-1, Alvarado singled to right and scored Sam McMillan before Silverio tied the game with a sac fly RBI that allowed Eric De La Rosa to come home.

The Lake Monsters took a 3-0 lead after scoring twice against New England starter Adam Wolf and once against Victor Mueses. Lobster Rolls relievers held Vermont scoreless from the fourth through the ninth innings, highlighted by three shutout frames from Tarik Skubal. Closer Yaya Chentouf also pitched three innings and allowed one unearned run in the tenth after an error by newly-added shortstop Wenceel Perez.

On Sunday, the Tigers return to action at Dodd Stadium against the Vermont Lake Monsters with right-handed starter Jose Vasquez (3-1, 2.92) scheduled to throw the first pitch at 4:05 p.m. Kids are invited to Have a Catch presented by the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative following the game and Kids Run the Bases courtesy of Ben & Jerry's with each receiving a coupon for a free ice cream cone at Ben & Jerry's inside Mohegan Sun.

The Connecticut Tigers are the New York-Penn League affiliate of the Detroit Tigers at Dodd Stadium in Norwich, Connecticut. Individual tickets for all 2018 home games, season memberships to "The Club," ticket mini-plans, and Tigers team merchandise are now on sale at Dodd Stadium, over the phone at 860-887-7962, and online at CTTigers.com.