Spikes lose heartbreaker to Vermont

By rscaife
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Updated: July 14, 2018

By BRIAN CARSON

UNIVERSITY PARK – The State College Spikes, down 3-0after four innings, rallied to tie things up only to have Vermont score a run in the ninth for the 4-3 victory in the series finale on Friday the 13th at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.

Lady Luck was against State College when Anthony Churlin led off the ninth with a double to left off the third-base bag. Aaron Arruda followed with a double off the center-field wall plating Churlin and giving the Lake Monsters the series win.

The Spikes tried to get its second straight comeback win in the ninth and looked in great shape when Delvin Perez led off with a walk, but a Justin Toerner strikeout, a Lars Nootbaar ground out to second, and a Nick Dunn groundout to first ended the game.

Vermont got off to a fast start when Alfonso Rivas doubled to left and later scored on a knock to right by Jonah Bride made it 1-0 after one inning of play.

The Lake Monsters (14-13) padded their lead to 3-0 with two runs in the fourth. Payton Squier singled to right, Churlin was hit by a pitch, and Aruda reached on an error by State College second baseman Dunn to load the bases.

Marcos Brito singled to right plating Squier and Joseph Pena brought home Churlin with a sacrifice fly to left.

State College (11-16) answered with two runs in the fifth when Wadye Ynfante singled to right, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on an error by Vermont shortstop Brito. Perez, who walked, scored on an RBI groundout from Dunn.

The Spikes tied it with a run in the seventh, thanks to two errors by the Lake Monsters. Walker Robbins reached on an error and scored when Dunn got on after Brito made his second error of the game. Vermont leads the New York-Penn League with 46 errors on the season.

Pitching was at a premium with Lake Monster pitchers Chase Cohen and Jose Mora limiting the Spikes to just two hits and one earned run. Spikes hurlers Chris Holba, Michael Baird and Hector Villalobos surrendered nine hits with three runs earned. At one point, State College retired 13 Vermont batters in a row.

Mora (1-1) went six innings to pick up his first win of the season. Baird (0-1) took the loss for the Spikes.

Jameson Hannah led the Lake Monsters with two hits. Ynfante and Brandon Benson had the only hits for State College, who are now batting just .235 as a team.

The Spikes start a three-game series with Tri-City at home beginning tonight at 7:05 p.m.