Yankees keep playoff hopes alive with walk-off win

After beating down the Vermont Lake Monsters (32-41) on Thursday night, the Staten Island Yankees chose the dramatic route to victory on Friday, winning in extra innings for the second time in the last week, 8-7.

Vermont started the scoring early as Yairo Munoz singled on the first pitch of the game off Staten Island starter Jordan Montgomery. The Lake Monsters went on to load the bases as J. P. Sportman singled and Jose Brizuela drew a walk. With the bases full, Max Kuhn laced a double to left field, plating both Munoz and Sportman. Trent Gilbert brought home the third run of the inning with a ground out to first base, allowing Brizuela to score for a 3-0 lead.

The Baby Bomber answered right back in the bottom half of the inning. Collin Slaybaugh started the innings by drawing a walk from Vermont starter Brett Graves. Billy Fleming was next to reach on a Graves miscue as the second baseman was hit by a pitch. Connor Spencer followed with yet another big hit, singling to left field to get Staten Island on the board. Chris Breen then hit a double to right field, plating Fleming. Luis Torrens capped off the inning for the Yankees as the catcher grounded out to second base, bringing home Spencer to tie the game.

Staten Island continued rolling in the second inning as Nathan Mikolas drew a walk, then scored as Vicente Conde cracked a double to center field to put the Yankees ahead, 4-3.

The hits kept coming for the Baby Bombers in the third. Breen started the inning with his team-leading eighth home run of the season on a no-doubter over the left field fence. Torrens came up with another hit for extra bases in the inning as he doubled center, then scored as Mikolas reached on an error by the Vermont outfield, giving Staten Island a 6-3 advantage.

The Lake Monster stayed close in the next inning as Kuhn got his second hit of the game with a single, followed by a John Nogowski single. Both runners came home to score as catcher Seong-min Kim doubled to right field to cut the Staten Island lead to one run.

The Baby Bombers got one of the runs back in the fourth inning as Fleming singled to left field, then later scored on a Breen single, making the score 7-5.

Vermont chipped away at Staten Island in the sixth inning. Trent Gilbert singled to center, then put himself in scoring position with a stolen base. Nogowski singled to center, putting Gilbert in perfect position to score on a wild pitch thrown by Yankee reliever Rony Bautista.

Down by one run, the Lake Monsters fought to stay in the game. Nogowski came up with another base hit, then came home to tie the game as Chris Wolfe reached on an error by Fleming at second base.

For the second time this week, there were extra innings at Richmond County Bank Ballpark. The Baby Bombers prevailed once again as Conde drew a walk followed by the heroic double to center field by Slaybaugh that kept the chase for a seventh New York-Penn League title alive in Staten Island.

Staten Island wraps up their series with the Lake Monsters on Saturday night with Hispanic Heritage Night and the final fireworks show of the 2014 season.