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MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com - BURLINGTON, VT --- Danny Espinoza scored on a bases loaded game-ending wild pitch as the Vermont Lake Monsters rallied from an early 5-0 deficit to beat the McNamara Division-leading Staten Island Yankees 7-6 in New York-Penn League action Friday night at historic Centennial Field.

Espinoza, who was 2-for-2 with two walks, was hit by a pitch to open the bottom of the ninth inning with the game tied 6-6. Espinoza then stole second and moved over to third on a Steve Souza sacrifice bunt. After Yankee reliever Josue Selenes (5-1) walked Derek Norris and Jake Dugger intentionally to load the bases, Selenes uncorked a one-out wild pitch to Michael Guerrero and Espinoza scored his third run of the game to snap Vermont’s six-game losing streak.

The Yankees had jumped out to a 5-0 lead after scoring a run in the first and then four unearned runs with the help of two Lake Monster errors in the third inning, but Vermont sent nine batters to the plate in the fourth inning to score four runs.

The Lake Monsters opened the four-run fourth with four straight singles from Espinoza, Souza, Norris and Dugger to cut the lead to 5-2, then added two more unearned runs on a pair of Staten Island fielding errors.

Vermont scored two more unearned runs in the fifth to take a 6-5 lead. With Espinoza on third with two outs, Dugger tripled down the right field line to tie the game and scored the go ahead run when Guerrero reached on a fielding error by second baseman David Adams. The triple for Dugger was the first for Vermont since July 21st and just the second at home all season with the other coming on June 25th.

Dan Brewer tied the game for Staten Island in the seventh with an RBI single to score Adams with another unearned run. Of the 13 runs scored in the game, only four of the runs were earned with Vermont pitchers charged with only one earned run and Yankee pitchers with three earned runs.

David Slovak (2-2) worked out of a one-out bases loaded jam in the ninth with a strikeout and groundout to pick up the victory, while Dugger was 2-for-3 with two walks and two RBI. Espinoza reached base safely in all five of his at bats (2 hits, 2 walks, 1 hit batter) and is now 9-for-11 with five walks in his four games with Vermont.

Ray Kruml was 2-for-5 with two runs for the Yankees, while Brian Baisley and Brewer both had two hits as the loss snapped an eight-game winning streak for Staten Island (39-22).

Vermont (24-35) and Staten Island will wrap up the three-game series on Saturday night beginning at 7:05 pm with Will Atwood scheduled to start for the Lake Monsters.

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