The Lake Erie Monsters came to Eastwood Field with a 17-4 record, a reflection of the direction that their parent club, the Washington Nationals, seems to be headed.  With most of their top draft picks signed and in uniform, the Lake Monsters would seem to overmatch the Mahoning Valley Scrappers on paper.  This game was not decided on paper, however, and the Scrappers staged a great last at-bat rally to come from behind and win, 6-5 on a pair of passed balls.

“Kind of reminiscent of last year’s team, wasn’t it?”, remarked Travis Fryman after the thrilling come-from-behind finish.  “We won a lot of games like that.  We don’t have a lot of offense this year and we have to capitalize on their errors, and they helped us there with four errors and a couple of wild pitches.”

The Lake Monsters wasted little time picking at Scrappers starter, Jordan Cooper. In the top of the first, Russell Moldenhauer hit a towering home run to right center  with one man on.  Vermont added single runs in the third and fifth innings to race out to a 4-0 lead.

The Scrappers fought back putting up three runs in the bottom of the fifth.  Wyatt Toregas started the frame with a double.  Chase Burnette followed up with an RBI-double plating Torregas.  Giovanny Urshela hit a ball to Lake Monsters SS Jason Martinson who threw the ball wildly to first and allowed Burnette to touch home.  Kevin Fontanez hit a sac fly scoring Urshela.

Vermont tacked on a run in the top of the eighth to push their lead to 5-3.  The Scrappers battled again in the bottom of the ninth inning as Carlos Moncrief knocked in Burnette to plate the tying run with one out.  The next batter, Fontanez was issued a free pass from Lake Monsters closer Dustin Crane, who was left in the game despite blowing the save.  Crane then threw a couple of wild pitches with two outs to allow Moncrief to advance to third, and one pitch later, trot home with the winning run.

Fryman praised Moncrief’s effort.  “You may know some of his story.  Carlos was a pitcher and said he did not want to pitch anymore so he came to camp as a position player and is in right field.  He has really been working hard and is taking baby steps in his improvement.”

The Scrappers and Lake monsters lock horns again Friday, first pitch is at 7:05 and the game will be followed with a grand display of fireworks.