Blue Sox secure playoff home game with win

BOONVILLE, NY (WUTR/WFXV/WPNY) — All the Blue Sox needed to secure a playoff game at Murnane Field was to knock off the lowly Boonville Lumberjacks at the Robert Smith Sports Complex on Sunday, July 27.

Despite already prepping for the long trip home, the Lumberjacks certainly were not going to make it easy.

The Blue Sox and Lumbejacks combined for 29 runs and five players with three or more RBIs. However, it was Utica who would take the lion’s share of the runs, knocking off Boonville 19-10.

Brendan Buecker led all batters with four RBIs on the night. Wyatt Hunt, Matt Benedetto and Yomar Carreras each had three for the Blue Sox, who finish their regular season at 23-18-1.

Both teams came flying out of the gate, and Boonville led 6-5 after just one inning of play. Utica native and SUNY Oneonta product Thomas Roefaro pitched that one inning for the Blue Sox, giving up those six runs on just four hits. However, the Utica bats came alive in the middle innings, scoring another 11 runs in the third through the fifth innings.

Ethan Acevedo went two-for-three with three RBIs, while Wei-Chen Wang had a home run and a pair of RBIs for Boonville. Nathan Vasquez also had two RBIs for the Lumberjacks, going two-for-three as well.

Charlie Collins came in for Roefaro after the six-run first, giving up only one earned run and five hits in four innings of work to pick up the win for Utica. Jin Chen gave up eight runs in three innings to get the loss for Boonville.

With the win, Utica has secured the fourth seed in the Eastern Division playoffs. They will face the fifth-seeded Watertown Rapids at Murnane Field on Monday.

Utica and Watertown split their season series with each other at five games apiece. The Rapids have won three out of the last four games, including the last two: 4-3 on July 21 in Watertown, and 11-7 two days later in Utica.

The Lumberjacks will finish their season at 10-28-1 and in seventh place in the Eastern Division, six games out of the final playoff spot. Boonville had lost five straight to finish out their campaign and could only manage a tie in their last 10 games.

First pitch for the first-round playoff game on Monday between Utica and Watertown at Murnane Field is scheduled for 6:45 pm.

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