BURLINGTON, VERMONT – Third-year Starfire Josh Frometa went yard for the first time this summer and Northwestern’s Griffin Mills added three RBIs to his season total, but the Westfield Starfires fell just short to the Vermont Lake Monsters, falling 9-8 despite trailing 7-2 heading into the eighth inning on Thursday, July 17, at Centennial Field.
The Starfires fall to 10-31-2 on the season while the Lake Monsters get to 27-16, still five games behind Worcester for first place in the league, but comfortably in second place.
It did not take Vermont long to find the scoreboard, as with a runner on in the bottom of the first, Shaun McMillan sent a ball over the left field fence for his league-leading 10th home run on the season for the Lake Monsters getting an initial 2-0 lead.
The Starfires were facing the FCBL’s best pitcher, John Delgado, and after being held off the board in the first two innings, Frometa sent one out of the park just out of the reach of a leaping Masai Marshall in left field to cut the Vermont lead in half. It was the first long ball of the summer for the American International product and his eighth career home run with the Starfires.
The third long ball of the game was hit in the bottom of the fourth off the bat of Nick Frontino, which gave the Lake Monsters a three-run lead, 4-1.
Vermont added a couple more runs in the sixth with a triple, an RBI single, then another run-scoring single later in the frame to get ahead by five two-thirds of the way through the game.
In the top of the seventh, the Starfires put together some solid plate appearances, and the Lake Monsters could not throw the ball over the plate, leading to Ohio’s Caleb Karll getting drilled and then two walks from Boston College’s John Mass and Virginia’s Griffin Enis to pack the bags full of Starfires.
After Vermont swapped pitchers to Luke Pearre, he too initially did not find the zone, walking Mills for the fourth straight free pass to plate a run. Although the Starfires stranded the bases loaded with a foul out to end the inning, they did score their second run without the benefit of a hit, getting a little closer at 6-2.
Vermont then restored their 7-2 lead on a bases-loaded walk of their own in the top of the seventh.
If the seventh was bad for Vermont’s pitching, the eighth was awful. Worcester State’s Riggs Catlin walked to start the inning, then Brown’s Alex Benevento got the first hit for Westfield since the third inning. The Starfires then scored their first run off a Frometa single down the left-field line to make the game 7-3.
After an error, the Lake Monsters walked in another run, this one drawn by John Mass to make the game 7-4. Then two wild pitches sent two more Starfires home, which set up Mills.
Mills, who had already been on base three times, drove the ball off the right-center fence, scoring both Mass and Enis to get to three RBIs on the night, and the Starfires rallied back to get the game in their favor at 8-7.
In the home half of the eighth, the Lake Monsters got a leadoff double from Jeremy Sosa, but then George Washington hurler Jasper Nadel got two big outs by getting two of the best Lake Monster hitters, Bryan Richman and McMillan, to ground out and fly out, respectively, keeping the runner at second.
However, a two-out triple from Hunter Kingsbury scored the game-tying run, and then a base hit from Aidan Botti sent to the plate what turned out to be the game-winning run for a 9-8 Vermont lead.
In Westfield’s final at-bats in the top of the ninth, the inning began with Catlin getting plunked and then pinch-hitter and Northeastern product, Anthony Ruggiero, drawing a base on balls despite falling behind 0-2 in his at-bat.
Iona’s Cole Silvia then laid down a successful sacrifice to put the game-tying and game-winning runs in scoring position with one out, but Vermont got two infield popouts to close up the books as the Starfires fell just short in Burlington.
Frometa, with his home run and RBI single, had his first two-hit game since June 26, while Mills reached base four times with a double and three runs driven in. His 22 RBIs put him in sixth place in the FCBL, and the Morristown, New Jersey native has also begun to rack up the walks, getting to 20 on the season in a tie for third around the league.
Speaking of Mills, he is one of six finalists for the final two spots in the 2025 FCBL All-Star game at Polar Park on Tuesday, July 22. Be sure to cast your vote for Mills at www.thefuturesleague.com to send the Starfires’ best run producer and power hitter to the midsummer classic next week. Voting closes at noon on Saturday, July 19.
On the mound for Westfield, Justin Bowman of Columbia made his first Starfires start, and just the second of his career at the collegiate level. He threw a career-best five innings, allowing four runs on six hits in the spot start that he only found out was his less than an hour prior to the first pitch. He had not previously thrown more than two innings in any collegiate-level appearance.
The Starfires will remain in Burlington to play their final game of the season against the Lake Monsters on Friday, July 18, with first pitch at 6:35 p.m.
Tickets to all Westfield Starfires home games can be purchased at www.westfieldstarfires.com.