Kicking off a four-game, three-day road trip against North Division opponents, the Danbury Westerners trekked up to Vermont hoping to collect, at the very least, their second road win. With All-American Sam Mongelli making his return to the lineup, leading off and playing shortstop no less, Danbury had a reason to hope their fortunes away from home would change. Mongelli went 2-5 in his season debut, but the Vermont Mountaineers’ offense outdueled the Westerners 7-3 at Montpelier Recreation Field.
Danbury falls to 9-13 with the defeat, their sixth against the North Division and second in a row following a three-game winning streak. Vermont stands at 16-7-1 with the victory, improving to 6-0 against the West Division and remaining tied for first place in their division with the Upper Valley Nighthawks.
Braden Quinn got the first two batters out on five pitches in the first but needed another 18 to record the third out as the Mountaineers capitalized on Mongelli’s throwing error. Facing a full count with Luke Cantwell on first, Brandon Butterworth smacked his first home run of the summer beyond the left field fence for an early 2-0 advantage.
Anthony Steele ripped a double to right field with Will Cook aboard in the second to put runners on second and third with one out. Unlike Monday’s contest, the Westerners capitalized with two in scoring position, slicing the lead on Drew Wyers’ sacrifice fly. Facing a 1-1 count with two down, Jason Claiborn doubled to centerfield and tied the game at two, recording his biggest hit in a Hat City uniform thus far.
Vermont again broke the tie in the bottom half when Evan Fox pummeled a drive to deep left field as Tyler Cox scored all the way from first base. Even with the Stony Brook second baseman swiping third in an effort to again double the Mountaineers’ lead, TJ Williams went around swinging as Quinn prevented further damage. With Cantwell on first after he got hit by a pitch in the third, Butterworth tapped an infield single for his second base knock to put two runners aboard and one away.
Facing his third jam in as many innings, Quinn escaped the frame as he recorded his third strikeout and Aaron Whitley flew out. Sandwiching Steele’s four-pitch walk and Bobby Zmarzlak’s flyout, Cook and Wyers ripped infield singles as the Westerners loaded the bases in the fourth. Colton Book relieved Eddie Smink following the second single, cleaning up his Stony Brook teammate’s mess as Jace Jeremiah made the throw to home for the second out and Jakobi Davis grounded right to Cox at first.
Andrew Castelluccio relieved Quinn in the bottom frame, running into his own jam when Cox ripped a single and Fox got hit by a pitch. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch, and even though Grant Voytovich loaded the bases when he got hit by a pitch, Castelluccio escaped the inning unmarked when Cantwell flew out.
Butterworth began Vermont’s portion of the fifth with an infield single, which would have been his third hit of the night, after the ball apparently bounced before reaching Wyers’ glove. Following a lengthy deliberation and a lengthier argument from Mountaineers’ manager Mitch Holmes, however, the umpires sent the Western Carolina shortstop back to the dugout and awarded Wyers the catch. Danbury singled in both the sixth and seventh, the latter being Mongelli’s first hit of the summer, but the Vermont pitching staff left them empty-handed both times. Claiborn grounded to the shortstop to end the sixth,
Voytovich doubled off Jonathan Link with one down in the bottom of the seventh, taking third on a groundout that ended the Trinity College southpaw’s night. That play brought in Timothy Cianciolo to go up against Butterworth, looking for his third hit after Wyers denied him two innings earlier. Davis made a diving effort on Butterworth’s knock, but missed the potential highlight-reel catch by millimeters as the Mountaineers doubled their lead. Cianciolo ran into further trouble when Nathan Waugh’s single and Marshall Toole’s full-count walk set the stage for Vermont to further get ahead with the bases loaded.
Cox’s perfectly placed bunt gave the Mountaineers their fifth run of the game before Cianciolo stranded the ducks on the pond on Fox’s flyout. The Westerners loaded the bases in the ensuing half-inning, but it appeared as though Vermont would escape undamaged after another fielder’s choice to get the out at home. However, Foley’s wild pitch against Harrison Feinberg made it a two-run game, so the UMass-Lowell righty struck out the Northeastern pinch-hitter instead.
Going up against Matthew Spada, the Mountaineers got that run back when Williams whacked a payoff pitch to deep left field. The ball appeared to get out to anyone not on the field, but instead ricocheted off the wall as the Notre Dame centerfielder recorded an RBI triple. Vermont loaded the bases one last time following Voytovich’s sacrifice fly, but Cox flew out to stop the bleeding. Mongelli’s double started things off in the ninth, but Luke Carpenter took care of business against the next three hitters to secure Vermont’s season sweep.
Quinn took his third loss of the summer with three runs (one earned) surrendered and three punchouts in three innings. Book won his third game with three shutout frames in relief, striking out four while allowing a hit and a walk.
Danbury continues their road trip at Goodall Park against another green North Division team, the Sanford Mainers (11-11), on July 6. Originally slated to duel in a doubleheader in Maine, the Mainers swept a “home-and-home” doubleheader against the Westerners at the Roadhouse at Rogers Park on June 20. Michael Szturma gets the nod for the first time on the road this summer with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
The rest of the Danbury Westerners’ 2023 schedule can be found on their website.