Ë®¹ûÅÉAV

Despite severely outhitting their first-round opponent, Utica, it's the Auburn Doubledays that are going home. 

Auburn was eliminated by the Blue Sox via a 7-1 score Sunday in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League quarterfinals.

Utica advances to play Batavia in the West Division finals, while the D'days conclude their season with a 25-22 record. 

It was the second straight year the two teams met in the postseason. Last season Auburn knocked off Utica by a similar score, 7-0, in the same round. 

To end this summer, the Blue Sox delivered their revenge. 

Auburn opened the scoring in the top of the third inning when Luke Hanson (Williamsburg, Virginia/University of Virginia) singled to score Tanner Kim (Kentucky).

That advantage lasted until the bottom of the fourth, when Utica's Lukas Schramm homered off D'days starter Cole Brady (Nacogdoches, Texas/University of Louisiana Monroe) to provide a 2-1 lead — one that Auburn was unable to overcome.

The Blue Sox added an additional run in the fifth inning, then scored two apiece in the seventh and eighth to close it out.

Kim reached base four times for Auburn on three hits and a walk. Ryan Cesarini (Archbald, Pennsylvania/St. Josephs University), Hanson and Kaden Kram (Sugar Land, Texas/Princeton University) chipped in two-hit games.

Brady took a tough-luck loss, allowing two earned runs (three total) in 5 2/3 innings pitched. He struck out six.

TEAM LEADERS

Auburn ends the season with two pitchers among the PGCBL leaders in two categories.

Right-handed hurler Gene McGough (Furlong, Pennsylvania/Radford University) finished fifth among all pitchers in strikeouts recorded with 53. The league leader, Oneonta's Christian Coombes, ended the regular season with 59.

Another righy, Ryan Bailey (Union Springs/Alfred State) was the runner-up for top ERA, posting a mark of 0.89 in 40 2/3 innnings pitched.

Bailey, one of the few Cayuga County natives on the team, ended the season with a 1-1 record in eight starts. He struck out 46 battings and walked only 11 while conceding 27 hits.

Bailey did not allow an earned run in his last three starts, a stretch that spanned 16 innings pitched.

Though Auburn cannot boast having the batting title winner for the second straight year — Griffin O'Ferrall (University of Virginia) hit .404 last season for the D'days — multiple hitters' seasons warrant mention. 

Cesarini, the team's primary lead-off hitter, led the Doubledays in runs (25), hits (32) and steals (8).

Assaf Lowengart (Mansfield University) was Auburn's top power hitter. He led or co-led the team in doubles (6), home runs (2) and RBIs (22).

WHAT'S NEXT?

For the first time in a long time, the Doubledays' future is secure. 

In May, the team and the city of Auburn announced an extension to their lease agreement of Falcon Park, which will keep the team around through the 2028 PGCBL season. 

The D'days' and Auburn's original agreement, signed in early 2021, was set to expire following the 2023 season. 

Prior to joining the PGCBL, Auburn was a longtime member of the New York-Penn League. However, the last several years of the NY-PL were filled with reports of team movement or evaporation. 

The league later folded following the canceled 2020 season. 

While the league is still several months away from announcing its 2023 season schedule — it did so in January for the 2022 season — the Doubledays will likely reconvene again in early June 2023.