Vermont Lake Monsters Defeat the State College Spikes 7-2 for Seventh Straight Victory

MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com – STATE COLLEGE, PA --- The Lake Monsters ran their winning streak to seven games and now have the best-ever record after 16 games in Vermont's 15-year history following a 7-2 victory over the State College Spikes in New York-Penn League action Wednesday night at Medlar Field.

Starter PJ Dean (2-0) continued his great start to the season and the Lake Monsters great pitching from their starters over the last week. Dean allowed just one hit with two walks and five strikeouts in six innings for the win. The only baserunners against Dean were a one-out walk in the second, two-out double in the third and a leadoff walk that was erased on a caught stealing in the fifth.

Dean has now allowed just one run on six hits in 18 innings for a 0.50 ERA in his first three starts of the season, while Vermont starters have now allowed just three runs on 17 hits in 32 2/3 innings for a 0.83 ERA during the seven-game winning streak.

Vermont jumped out on top 1-0 in the first inning as Nick Arata scored an unearned run when he scored third and scored on a throwing error by catcher Mark Carver. The Lake Monsters added two more runs in the third as Steve Souza walked with two outs, stole second and scored on a Jesus Valdez RBI single to center. Michael Guerrero followed with an RBI double to rightcenter for the 3-0 lead.

ADVERTISEMENT

The lead stayed at three until the top of the seventh when Derek Norris hit his first home run of the season, a two-run blast to left for a 5-0 Vermont advantage. The Spikes scored their only two runs on the game in the bottom of the seventh off reliever Kevin Light, who tossed three innings for his first save, but the runs were unearned as they both scored on a throwing error by Souza at third base.

Stephen Englund got one of those runs back in the eighth with a solo homer before the Lake Monsters added another run in the ninth on a Arata one-out triple and Norris sacrifice fly for the eventual 7-2 final score.

Ramon Aguero (0-3) allowed three runs (two earned) in 3 2/3 innings to take the loss for the Spikes, who were held to just two hits in the game by Dean and Light.

While the win was the seventh straight for the Lake Monsters, leaving them just one win shy of the team-record eight set in both 1996 and 2001, it was also the fourth straight win to open the six-game roadtrip.  Vermont has not won four straight road games since winning the first four games of the 2001 season at Pittsfield.

The win also keeps the Lake Monsters in first-place in the Stedler Division with a 10-6 record, the team’s best-ever record after 16 games (Vermont had previous been 9-7 after 16 games in 1996, 1998 and 2000).

The Lake Monsters will go for the team-record tying eighth straight win on Thursday night at State College with Ricardo Pecina getting the start for Vermont in the 7:05 pm contest.

Box Score: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2008_07_02_verasx_stcasx_1

Subscribe TODAY and use the code BMR for 50% Holiday Savings off of the $11.99 annual subscription price!!!