Norwich Sea Unicorns capture Futures League championship for first time

There was some baseball history made in the Rose City on Sunday night.

The Norwich Sea Unicorns captured the franchise's first Futures League championship with a 2-1 victory over the Vermont Lake Monsters before a raucous crowd of 2,100 at Dodd Stadium.

“I couldn’t be more proud,” Norwich Sea Unicorns General Manager Lee Walter, Jr. said. “Obviously, I’m happy for me, but I’m more happy for these guys because they played their hearts out all year and they did what they had to do.”

The Sea Unicorns and Lake Monsters were playing a historic winner-take-all championship game, instead of the traditional 2-of-3 finals series, due to inclement weather during their respective semifinal series that stretched the season into the third week of August.

“We were ready to go,” Sea Unicorns shortstop Zach Donohue said. “I think it helped having the off day. It’s the dog days of summer and we’re all pulling for each other. It came down to which team wanted it more and now we’re holding up that trophy.”

Norwich second baseman Johnny Knox (Nichols) was voted the Championship Series Most Valuable Player. Knox scored the winning run against Vermont in the fifth inning on Zach Donohue’s RBI single.

More: These are the nine easiest golf holes in Eastern Connecticut

Knox, who helped Nashua win the Futures League championship last summer, went 6-for-12 with two home runs, a triple and four RBIs in the Sea Unicorns three-game semifinal series win against rival New Britain.

“It’s been an awesome year,” Knox said. “It’s just that never-say-die mentality. We started 3-7. It was a total buy in and that’s what turned it around. We got a few guys midway through the season who came in and fit the culture perfectly. From there we just went and continued to grow. It feels great.”

One of those players the Sea Unicorns added to the roster for their historic playoff push was Donohue, who is entering his senior year at Eastern Connecticut State University this fall. Donohue drove in Norwich’s two runs in the championship game.

Trailing 1-0, Norwich tied it in the bottom of the third. Ray Leonzi (Eastern CT State) drew a lead-off walk and raced to third on Knox's single to right. Leonzi then scored on Donohue's fielder's choice grounder.

With two out and no one on in the bottom of the fifth, Knox reached on an infield error and hustled into second base when the ball skipped into the outfield. Donohue followed with an RBI single to right for a 2-1 lead.

“I just wanted to put a good swing on it, do a job, and get a guy over and luckily I hit it hard enough to get through and get an RBI on the board,” Donohue said.

Top-seeded Norwich (39-22) finished one game ahead of Vermont (38-23) for the regular-season title. The Sea Unicorns also won five of six games against the Lake Monsters during the season.

More: Brooklyn fights to the end, falls short in Little League state finals

Vermont, which fell in the championship series a year ago to Nashua, topped the Worcester Bravehearts in three games in the semifinals.

“Obviously, they’re a very good team so we knew we had to throw our best punch,” Donohue said.

Vermont took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second. Jake Gaudreau (Bryant) drew a one-out walk and scored on Kyle Lodise's (Augusta) two-out double to deep centerfield.

Sea Unicorns pitchers Mark Capell (Yale), Chris Jenkins (Endicott), and Daniel Cohen (Yale) allowed no runs on four hits over the final seven innings in relief of starter Joseph Castrichini (Stonehill). Capell scattered three hits and allowed no runs in 3⅓ innings to earn the win, while Daniel Cohen allowed no runs and one hit over the final three innings to earn the save.

“It helped having just one game,” Norwich Sea Unicorns manager Kevin Murphy said. “We would have had to spread it out arm-wise with a three-game set but with that winner-take-all we had a chance to stack all of the arms and get a win. We knew it was going to be a low scoring game because they had the same thing.”

Cohen notched a strikeout for the game’s final out that set off a wild celebration.

“I got a little nervous but it was good nerves,” Cohen said. “Everything was working. I threw a slider, cutter, and changeup to the last batter. I’m just glad to be a part of this.”

Vermont pitchers Thomas Santana (Columbia), Ethan Mishra (Tulane), Wyatt Cameron (Central Connecticut), and Sean Gamble (Minnesota State) allowed just one earned run while scattering nine hits and striking out seven.

Futures League commissioner Joe Paolucci handed the championship trophy to Murphy during the postgame ceremony.

“The big thing is that all of these kids don’t have egos,” Walter, Jr. said. “They are baseball grinders who came here and they just worked their tail off. They built a bond early in the season and they just carried it all the way through and again I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Futures League championship: Norwich Sea Unicorns top Vermont