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Vermont at Hudson Valley
New York-Penn League Baseball
September 7, 2007
Vermont 8, Hudson Valley 4
* Vermont won 4 of its final 5 games of the season to finish with a 38-37 record
* It is Vermont’s 1st winning season since 2000 and 2nd winning season last 11 years
* Boomer Whiting had 2 stolen bases to tie for all-time season record with Kenny James (1997)
* Adrian Alaniz won 8th game, moving him into 3rd-place all alone of single-season win list
* Vermont defense finished with 74 errors in 75 games, a new record for fewest errors in season
FISHKILL, NY --- The Lake Monsters ended the 2007 season with an 8-4 New York-Penn League victory over the Hudson Valley Renegades on Friday night at Dutchess Stadium to give Vermont its first winning season since 2000 and just the second in the team’s last 11 years.
The Lake Monsters got off to a fast start on Friday, scoring two runs in both the first and second innings for a 4-0 lead. Aaron Seuss had a sacrifice fly and Sean Rooney an RBI single for the two runs in the first, while Boomer Whiting an RBI single and Dan Lyons a sac fly in the second.
After Hudson Valley scored two runs in the bottom of the second off starter Josh Smoker, the Lake Monsters scored three more runs in the fourth for a 7-2 lead. Garrett Bass had an RBI groundout, while Seuss and Michael Burgess had RBI singles in the inning.
Vermont got its final run of the night, and the season, in the sixth as Bass got the Lake Monsters third sacrifice fly of the night for an 8-2 lead. The Renegades got their final two runs of the night in the seventh inning off reliever Adrian Alaniz, but Ryan Harrison and Luke Pisker each tossed one scoreless inning to end the game.
Whiting had two steals in the game to give him 37 stolen bases on the season, tying him with 1997 Expos outfielder Kenny James for the all-time single-season Vermont record.
Alaniz (8-2) gave up two runs on seven hits with one walk and four strikeouts in five innings of relief for his eighth win of the season. The eight victories are the third-most ever by a Vermont pitcher behind Chris Weidert’s 11 wins in 1995 and Jayson Durocher’s nine wins in 1994.
The Vermont defense came within two outs of having its 34th errorless game of the season before a one-out Seuss error in the ninth inning, but the Lake Monsters ended the season with just 74 errors in 75 games. That breaks the previous record of 86 miscues in 1996 for the fewest errors in a season by a Vermont team.
Rooney went 3-for-4 for the Lake Monsters, while both Bass and Seuss had two RBI in the game and both finished the season with identical .293 batting averages (behind Bill Rhinehart’s team-high .299 average).
Vermont won four of its last five games on the season to finish 38-37, giving the Lake Monsters a 15-game improvement over the 2006 Vermont team that finished 23-52 and the first winning season since the Vermont Expos went 45-30 in 2000. Vermont also finished 2007 with an 18-20 road record, the most road wins since 19 in 2000.
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