BATAVIA, NY --- The Batavia Muckdogs broke a scoreless tie with four runs on four hits, including three doubles, in the bottom of the fifth inning and went on to complete a three-game sweep of the Vermont Lake Monsters with a 7-1 New York-Penn League victory at Dwyer Stadium on Thursday night.Vermont starter Mitchell Clegg (1-3) did not allow a hit to the Muckdogs over the first four innings, but Batavia got to the left-hander in the bottom of the fifth. After a leadoff walk, Jon Edwards smacked an RBI double to center field to score Kyle Conley with the first run of the game.
Then after Clegg got a groundout for the first out of the inning, Batavia added three more runs on a Luis De La Cruz RBI double, Ivan Castro RBI single and Michael Swinson RBI double for a 4-0 lead. Batavia's other three runs came on a Matthew Adams solo home run off reliever Dustin Crane in the sixth and a two-run Niko Vasquez homer in the eighth ininng off of Shane Erb.
Vermont's only run of the game came in seventh inning as J.R. Higley reached on a strikeout wild pitch, moved to second on a balk, advanced to third on a Justin Bloxom single and scored on a Adam Amar sacrifice fly. J.P. Ramirez had two of Vermont's five hits on the night, including his 13th double of the season.
Batavia starter Dan Calhoun (1-0) allowed just three hits over six scoreless innings with no walks and six strikeouts for his first win of the season. He allowed two-out hits in both the first and second innings, then a one-out single in the fourth before retiring the final eight batters that he faced.
Edwards, De La Cruz and Castro each had two hits for Batavia (27-27), which has won five games in a row to get to the .500 mark. The Lake Monsters have now lost five straight games for the second time this season to fall a season-high five games under the .500 mark at 24-29.
Vermont will try to get back into the win column as the Lake Monsters open a three-game series at historic Centennial Field against the State College Spikes on Friday night beginning at 7:05 pm. It is Youth Hockey Night with a special appearance by former NHL defenseman Aaron Miller and members of the University of Vermont men's hockey team.
• Discuss this story on the New York-Penn League message board...
• Digg this story
• Add to Del.icio.us
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
