Sea Unicorns Drop Disappointing Tuesday Night Meeting with Lake Monsters
Norwich, CT – The Norwich Sea Unicorns were defeated 12-6 by the Vermont Lake Monsters on Tuesday night to close out their 6-game homestand. The loss drops Norwich to 9-13 through 22 ballgames while the Lake Monsters collected their 6th straight victory and now hold sole possession of first place in the Futures League.
Vermont opened the scoring immediately, striking for a pair in the 1st against Norwich starter Matt Pearch. The Yale commit battled command issues throughout his start, issuing 5 walks and hitting a batter. The Lake Monsters had immediate traffic to begin the ballgame thanks to a pair of walks to start the night. Leandro Guevara took advantage lining an RBI single to left field to bring home the first run of the night. Later, a sacrifice fly from Cooper Berry increased the Vermont lead to 2.
The offense continued in the 2nd for Vermont, plating another 3 runs to build a 5-0 lead. Once again wildness from Pearch paved the way for the Lake Monsters. A hit batsman and a walk provided traffic on the bases to start the inning. An infield single from Hunter Kingsbury and a throwing error that spilled into foul territory helped score the 1st run of the frame. Next, an error from the Norwich third baseman led to the 2nd run of the inning for Vermont and a sacrifice fly from Massai Marshall stretched the Vermont lead to 5.
Vermont added a run in the 3rd to extend their lead to 6 on a sacrifice fly from Guevara to score Kingsbury who cracked a one out double to the wall in right field.
The score remained the same until the 6th, when the Lake Monsters broke through for their second 3 run inning of the contest. Vermont did their damage before Norwich recorded an out in the frame on 4 hits and an error.
In the 7th, the Lake Monsters tacked on another to grow their lead to 10, effectively putting Norwich in danger of the game ending early via the run rule.
Antonio Ducatelli had other ideas, cranking a leadoff triple to start the home 7th, and was later brought home on a Gabriel Rivera sacrifice fly to give Norwich their first run of the night.
The Lake Monsters answered in the 8th striking for a pair of runs to once again put the hosts on the brink of a shortened ballgame. Tyler Harmony kicked the inning off with a ringing ground rule double and was later brought home on a Hunter Kingsbury base hit to right field. Guevara followed with his 3rd RBI of the night crushing a double to the wall in left field.
Despite an 11-run deficit entering the home 8th, Norwich erupted for 5 runs to trim the Vermont lead to 6. Joe Durso jumpstarted the Norwich offense with a leadoff base hit and later stole both 2nd and 3rd and an errant throw from the Vermont catcher allowed Durso to score. Next, three consecutive free passes from the Vermont reliever with one out helped Norwich load the bases. Matt Fincher elected to make a pitching change in the middle of a 3-0 count to Ducatelli with the bases loaded. The pitching change was unsuccessful as the reliever fired ball 4 to the Norwich left fielder to force home the 3rd run of the night for the Sea Unicorns. A controversial infield fly ruling off the bat of Rivera was dropped in shallow right field and was ruled the 2nd out of the frame, but helped the hosts bring home another run. Anthony Tirado capped off the big inning with a 2 out, 2 run scoring base hit to center field. Unfortunately, that would be the end of the spark from the late-inning surge.
The Sea Unicorns are back in action tonight on the road at Fitton Field against the Worcester Bravehearts. DJ Peterson (1-1) will take the mound for Norwich in his first start of the summer opposite Evan Cornelius (0-0). First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
Win – Eli Fleming (2-2)
Loss – Matt Pearch 0-1)
Time – 3:22