Nashua stuns Lake Monsters with ninth-inning homer, seizes Futures League crown
A night after producing a walkoff win, the Nashua Silver Knights orchestrated another rally against the Vermont Lake Monsters.
And this one left Vermont stunned, the home crowd to whispers.
Kyle Wolff drilled a go-ahead, two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning as Nashua unseated defending champion Vermont for a 6-5 victory in the decisive third game of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League championship series in front of 2,937 at Centennial Field on Friday night.
The Lake Monsters, who broke their FCBL single-season record with 44 wins this summer, loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but winning pitcher Will Andrews worked out of the jam to seal Nashua's sixth league championship.
Nashua forced Friday's contest after storming back from a 4-0 deficit in Thursday's 6-5 home win. Vermont seized a 1-0 series lead with Wednesday's 12-0 shutout at Centennial.
Brian Schuab (1-for-4, double, three RBIs) and Connor Bowman (1-for-4, two RBIs) accounted for much of Vermont's offense while reliever Wyatt Cameron, who retired the first six batters he faced, suffered the loss in 2 2/3 innings of work. Tommy Martin and Cooper Kelly added two hits for the Lake Monsters, who finish 30-8 at Centennial Field this summer.
After Nashua took a 1-0 lead in the second inning, Schuab launched a two-out, three-run double to center for a 3-1 Lake Monsters lead through three innings. Nashua plated a run in the fourth and then regained the advantage in the fifth on lefty Jack McDermott's two-run homer to right.
In the seventh, Bowman delivered a two-out, two-run single between third and short to give Vermont a 5-4 margin. The lead carried into the ninth, where Cameron had been cruising. The Middlebury Union High School product fanned the leadoff batter before McDermott doubled with two strikes to spark Nashua's comeback.
On the next pitch, Wolff unloaded his two-run homer to deep left. The Lake Monsters threatened in the home half of the ninth, but Jimmy Evans popped out and Schuab flied out to right to end hopes of a repeat title.
Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter: @aabrami5.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Futures League championship: Nashua dethrones Lake Monsters with homer
