Trending
NEW HARTFORD - With a resounding 13-1 victory over the Utica Blue Sox at Dwyer Stadium on Friday evening, the Batavia Muckdogs claimed the 2026 Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL) championship, winning their first PGCBL title in franchise history.
The top-seeded Muckdogs, West Division regular season champions for the fifth straight season and West playoff champions for the second consecutive year, snapped the Cinderella run of the Blue Sox, who had emerged from the East as the 3-seed after winning back-to-back road games.
This was the first meeting of two franchises looking for their first PGCBL title since 2015, and it is the first time since 2018 that a team is breaking through with their first championship. Batavia lost in two games to Saugerties last year, while Utica was making their second ever championship appearance, and first since 2016.
Batavia opened the scoring with a run in the second inning and steadily built their lead with three-run frames in the third and fourth and a four-run sixth inning. Jackson Inman (Salisbury) knocked in three runs with a single in the third and a two-run double in the sixth.
Gavin Chandler (Southern Wesleyan) went five and a third innings to earn the victory, allowing just one run and striking out five en route to being named the game's Most Valuable Player. Batavia right fielder Braedon Reina (Monroe Community College) crossed the plate three times and collected an RBI with a single to right field in the fourth as the home team took a 7-0 lead before Utica pushed across their first and only run with an RBI single from Kevin Francella (William & Mary).
Michael Flashner (Staten Island) had three hits for the Blue Sox while Jalen David (Holy Family) joined Reina and Inman as players with multi-hit games for the Muckdogs, who collected 13 hits on the night.
The Muckdogs are the sixth different franchise to be crowned PGCBL champions in the 15 seasons that have been played. The Jamestown Jammers (2018) were the last team to win the championship outside of Amsterdam and Saugerties. The Newark Pilots won the league in its first year of existence (2011), while the Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawgs were crowned champs in 2015 and 2017.