ValleyCats outlast Lake Monsters and rain, end home stance with win

TROY — It took four hours and 30 minutes, including a 46-minute rain delay, for the Tri-City ValleyCats to outlast the Vermont Lake Monsters 8 to 5 Monday, at Joe Bruno Stadium.

Tri-City’s scoring began with a Jake Adams RBI sacrifice fly and then was followed by an RBI single from Abraham Toro-Hernandez. Infielder Connor MacDonald added two more runs with his first home run of the year, and the ‘Cats secured a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.

Vermont slowly crawled their way back into the game, with runs in the second and fourth innings, followed by two runs in the fifth off a force out and a wild pitch to tie the game at four.

The ValleyCats resecured their lead in the sixth inning, and never looked back. Jake Adams hit his second home run of the year, and Carlos Canelon added an RBI sacrifice fly to go up 6-4. Andy Pineda drove in another run off an RBI single and then was able to score later in the inning on a wild pitch.

‘Cats ace Ben Smith secured the win after a brilliant inning of relief that saw him strike out all three batters and record his first win of the season. Smith was one of four pitchers who came on in relief of Patrick Sandoval, who went four innings, allowing four earned runs on six hits while striking out three batters.

Jose Mora picks up the loss for the Lake Monsters after allowing four runs in two innings of work. Mora came on in relief of the starter Abdiel Mendoza, who went three and two-thirds innings, allowing four runs and striking out one.

The ValleyCats are off today before traveling to Connecticut for a doubleheader on Wednesday afternoon with the CT Tigers. Their next home game is July 4 against the Brooklyn Cyclones at 6:30 p.m.

Dylan Rossiter contributed to this story