Eliot Barrengos is a reporter with Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.
BURLINGTON — In fall 2023, Colchester High School pitcher Zach Davis sat at a table in the cafeteria and signed a contract to pitch for his hometown Lake Monsters.
The Vermont teen joined a growing list of baseball players from the Green Mountains to take the field for the Burlington baseball team.
“It was around the winter or late fall of my senior year of high school. I reached out to my college coach and asked if it would be possible for me to play here this summer,” Davis said. “We gave (Lake Monsters head coach Matt Fincher) a call.”
It was a moment the right-hander had dreamed of just a few years earlier.
“It sounds pretty cliché to say, ‘You can do what you put your mind to,’ but it is really true,” he said. “I remember coming to games — one in particular, my junior or sophomore year of high school — and I was just thinking, ‘Hey, I want to play here when I’m in college.’ So yeah, it’s a cliché, but there’s a lot of truth to it.”
He debuted for the team the summer after he graduated from Colchester High School, playing for a couple of months before heading to Bryant University, where he is now a rising sophomore.
For fellow pitcher Cole Tarrant, the story followed a similar script — minus the cafeteria. Tarrant, a southpaw also from Colchester, initially reached out to the Lake Monsters coaching staff, hoping to sign on for the summer after his first season at Hobart College in upstate New York.
The rising junior has been coming to games since he was in Little League.
“I remember when my grandparents brought me to a game — I was 6 or 7,” he said. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is really cool.’ It was always my dream to play baseball at a high level … It’s kind of a full-circle moment to be back out here.”
At the time, Fincher could only offer the lefty a temporary contract for the 2024 season. When injuries and departures inevitably created roster turnover, Tarrant had the chance to join the team for the full season.
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After falling short of their championship aspirations last summer, both pitchers returned for the 2025 season. A couple of hours before facing the New Britain Bees last week, the pair reflected on their time with the team ahead of the Lake Monsters’ playoff start on Sunday.
“I felt like it helped me a lot for my junior year, so I figured I’d do it again. I thought it could help me again this summer,” Tarrant said.
For Davis, the Monsters have represented the perfect place to hone his craft as a pitcher for Division I Bryant.
“I have a lot of support, and I thank God for that,” Davis said. “I’m very grateful for my family, friends and the people that support me with what I do. Like, just for example — tonight, my whole family’s coming to the game. Family-friends are coming.”
Vermont is not necessarily known for producing top-end baseball talent. But both hurlers know that playing for the hometown team can be especially meaningful on the Little Leaguers who sit in the stands.
“Even my parents have friends with little kids who tell me how awesome it is to come see me — ’cause they know me. I think that kind of inspires them, too,” Tarrant said.
The Lake Monsters have not captured a championship since their run in summer 2021. For the guys in the dugout, the prospect of capturing the franchise’s second trophy in five years is, in Davis’s words, “really exciting.”
“Some of us have been here since May, and guys have come in and out. But for a lot of us, this is the last little stretch,” he said.
The Lake Monsters currently sit in second place in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League standings and boast a 38–19 record.
“We have a chance to do something fun, something cool, and play baseball a little longer. No matter what happens, I love this team. I had a great time. I won’t regret anything we did this summer,” Davis said.
Regardless of how this season ends, both pitchers feel their team is leaving a mark on baseball in Vermont.
“They’ve been really successful here for four years now,” Davis said. “The organization’s done great on and off the field — they’ve created an environment that people want to come and watch. I only see it getting better.”
