Montpelier, Vt. - The Danbury Westerners took advantage of six Mountaineer errors en route to an 11-2 victory at Montpelier Recreation Field on Wednesday night in New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) action. The loss was the second in a row for Vermont (11-14) and the fifth in their last six games.
Danbury, who has won four in a row, jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Zach Shank hit a one out double, stole third and scored on an RBI groundout from Mike Orefice. However the Mountaineers answered in the home half as Michael White (East Orange, N.J./Louisville) was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on Austin Green's RBI single to tie things up.
Both starters then settled in as Casey Delgado (Miami, Fla./Austin Peay) struck out the side in the second and tossed a scoreless third as well. In the top of the fourth, the Westerners (14-13) got back-to-back singles to lead off the inning. Delgado then attempted to pick off the runner at second but instead threw the ball into centerfield allowing each runner to advance. After a failed bunt attempt from Chase Butler for the first out, Daniel Spingola hit a sharp ball up the middle that was destined for center. Instead, Cole Peragine (Belle Ewert, Ontario/Stony Brook) made a great stab but threw the ball away for an error allowing two runs to come home. An RBI double from Jake Gronsky and run scoring single from Matt Boulter completed the inning putting Danbury ahead 5-1.
Vermont attempted to cut into the lead in the bottom of the fourth as Green (San Diego, Calif./San Diego) hit a leadoff single and was followed by Brett Johnson's (Little Elm, Texas/TCU) base hit. Green however attempted to go from first to third but was thrown out. Brian O'Grady then got another base hit to put runners on second and first with one out. After Johnson stole third, Westerners starter Ben Brewster retired the next two in order to end the threat.
The Mountaineers would get a run across in the fifth when White hit an RBI groundout scoring Aaron Barbosa (Dracut, Mass./Northeastern) to cut the lead to 5-2. That would be the final run Vermont would score as Danbury relievers John Porter and Greg Ostner combined to retire 12 of the final 13 batters in order giving up just one hit in four innings.
In the sixth, reliever Steve Ostapeck (Sacramento, Calif./Villanova) allowed the first five batters to reach thanks in part to error on Ryan Karl (Towaco, N.J./Louisville) to begin the inning and a throwing error on himself. All five of those runners would eventually score making the lead 10-2 before Danbury added another run against Luke Crocker (Strafford, Vt./Clark) in the eighth.
Brewster (3-0) got the win going five innings allowing two runs on seven hits without a walk while Delgado (1-1) took the loss pitching four innings allowing five runs, one earned, on seven hits and striking out four.
The Mountaineers go on the road Thursday when they travel to North Adams, Mass. to take on the SteepleCats prior to returning home on Friday. All the game action can be heard live on ESPN 1240, WSKI and online at www.thevermontmountaineers.com.
Game Notes: Barbosa stole second base in the fifth giving him 16 on the year, second in the league...Johnson and White also stole a bag giving Vermont 83 as a team. |
