BURLINGTON, VT --- Anthony Churlin was 3-for-4 with two runs and a triple, while Jesus Lage went 3-for-3 with two doubles and solid pitching from four Lake Monsters helped lead the Vermont Lake Monsters to their fourth straight victory with a 3-1 New York-Penn League win over the Lowell Spinners
BURLINGTON, VT --- Anthony Churlin was 3-for-4 with two runs and a triple, while Jesus Lage went 3-for-3 with two doubles and solid pitching from four Lake Monsters helped lead the Vermont Lake Monsters to their fourth straight victory with a 3-1 New York-Penn League win over the Lowell Spinners Friday night at historic Centennial Field.
Starter Brian Howard retired all nine Spinners that he faced (two by strikeout), needing just 34 pitches (25 strikes) to get through three perfect innings. Over his last three appearances, Howard has allowed just one hit with one walk and nine strikeouts over nine innings of work (retiring 26 of 29 batters).
Reliever Wyatt Marks took over in the fourth and tossed three scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out four. He was followed by Bryce Conley with two hitless innings with one walk and three strikeouts. The Spinners finally got on the scoreboard in the ninth on a Raiwinson Lameda two-out RBI single, but with the tying run on first base Logan Salow (first save) got Jordan Wren on a line drive to second for the final out.
The Lake Monsters got a pair of unearned runs in the second after loading the bases on a single and two Lowell errors to start the inning. Lage lined out to right to score Greg Deichmann with a sacrifice fly and one-out later Mickey McDonald lined a single to leftfield scoring Churlin.
Vermont added another run in the fourth on an Aaron Arruda sacrifice fly after Churlin had led off the inning with a 402-foot triple to deep centerfield. Lage and Churlin combined for six of the Lake Monsters 10 hits, the sixth time in the last seven games Vermont has hit double figures in hits and are now batting a season-high .241 overall.
Yorvin Pantoja (0-6) allowed three runs (one earned) on six hits over 4 1/3 innings for Lowell (25-29), while Lameda and Nick Hamilton both had two of the Spinners five hits. This was the Lake Monters first three-game sweep of the Spinners since July 1-3, 2010 at Lowell and the first at Centennial since June 26-28, 2008.
The four-game winning streak is the second longest of the season for Vermont (31-25), which had won six straight July 4-9. The Lake Monsters first-place lead in the Stedler Division is now three games over Tri-City, which was rained out on Friday.
Vermont continues the six-game homestand with the first of a three-game series against the Connecticut Tigers on Saturday. It is Princess and Superhero Night at the ballpark and their will be a post-game fireworks show following the 6:05 pm game.
Paul Stanfield is the Media Relations Director for the Vermont Lake Monsters.
