DANBURY, Conn. – The Vermont Mountaineers suffered a 3-2 setback to the Danbury Westerners in a cross-divisional New England Collegiate Baseball League bout at Rogers Park on Monday night.

BOX SCORE

With the win, Danbury took the season-series against the Mountaineers, after the Westerners won the series opener by the same score back on June 9th at Montpelier Recreation Field. Vermont’s three-game winning streak was snapped and they are now 18-14 on the season while Danbury improves to 15-14 on the year. The Mountaineers, who are fourth in the Northern Division standings, sit a game outside of second place in the tight divisional playoff race.

The first four and a half innings was a pitcher's duel between Vermont’s Enzo Stefanoni (Darlen, Conn. / Harvard University) and Danbury’s Derek Duffy.

However, it was the Westerners that struck first in the bottom of the fifth.

After Stefanoni got a groundout to start the inning, Alex Baratta reached on an error by the third baseman, before advancing to second on a wild pitch. A one-out single by Cameron Masterman put runners on the corners, before a single by Isiah Daubon plated Baratta, giving Danbury a 1-0 lead. A strikeout and a ground out ended the threat for Stefanoni heading into the top of the sixth.

Vermont put a runner on first base in the sixth inning after Matt McDermott (Little Falls, N.J. / College of William & Mary) was hit with the first pitch he saw with one away. However, the next batter flew out and McDermott was caught trying to steal second to end the inning.

Stefanoni came out after in the bottom of the sixth frame, striking out the side for a solid rebound inning after giving up a run in the fifth. That gave the Mountaineers some momentum in the seventh inning.

Eli Oliphant came into relief in the seventh for the Westerners and Vermont was able to tie the game at one. Cam Climo (Billerica, Mass. / University of Massachusetts Lowell) and Curtis Robison (Dillsburg, Pa. / Penn State University) singled to start the inning, with Climo moving to third on an error by the right fielder. Climo came into score after Charping grounded out.

Nicolas Luc (Farmingdale, N.Y. / Adelphi University) came in relief for Stefanoni to start the seventh, retiring the first two batters he faced. He hit the next hitter, before getting Daubon to fly out to center to keep the game tied at one run.

Vermont took the lead in the eighth inning with a solo home run off the bat of Ciaran Devenney (Manalpan, N.J. / University of Massachusetts Lowell) on a 1-1 count from Pete Bloomberg, putting the Mountaineers up 2-1. However, Bloomberg set down the next three batters to end the inning.

Danbury evened the game at two in the bottom of the frame. A single, a sacrifice bunt, and a walk put runners on first and second with one away. Caleb Upshaw sent a single up the middle just past the diving attempt of McDermott to score Alex Bello from second off of Andrew Mundy (Lake Grove, N.Y. / Hofstra University). Mundy escaped further damage getting the next two Westerner hitters to fly out.

Vermont had a chance to take the lead in the ninth inning. A walk to Evan Giordano (Sewel, N.J. / Stony Brook University) and a one-out walk to Robison put runners on first and second for the visitors. A ground out put runners on the corners with two away before a fly out left ended the inning, giving Danbury a chance to walk it off in the ninth.

After Mundy quickly retired the first two batters on a pair of groundouts to shortstop, Daubon took a 1-0 pitch deep to the left field clearing the fence, giving the Westerner’s a 3-2 walk-off win.

Stefanoni pitched six strong innings to start the game for Vermont. He had five strikeouts and allowed just one unearned run on four hits. Mundy suffered the loss, giving up the solo shot in the ninth in one and a third innings pitched in relief. Bloomberg got the win for Danbury in two innings of relief work.

The Mountaineers return to action on Tuesday, July, 16 in Keene, N.H. against the Swamp Bats at 6:30 p.m. from Alumni Field. You can follow all of the action online all season long on the NECBL Broadcast Network.