Lexington – Lexington put on its hitting shoes and knocked out 19 hits on its way to a 14-4 win over Middlesex Sunday night. The win propelled the Blue Sox into the championship round. The Blue Sox will face a familiar opponent in the finals.  The Andre Chiefs await them for game one on Tuesday night at Morelli Field in Melrose. Game time is set for 8:00 pm. Middlesex scored first in the bottom of the first. Leon Paulino tripled into the rightfield corner driving in Idelson Taveras and Eduardo Soto. Paulino scored on a sacrifice fly by John Batista and it was 3-0 Expos. As they had done on Friday night the Blue Sox quickly responded with a big, crooked number in the top of the second. Two quick hits (both on the first pitch) and a sacrifice put Sox runners on second and third. Dylan Walsh scored the first two runs of the inning with a single. After the second out Max Dushney singled to score Walsh and tie the game at 3-3. Jake McElroy singled, Anderson Jimenez doubled to drive in 2 more and scored on an RBI single by Julian Alvarez to make it 6-3. McElroy paced the attack from the leadoff spot. He had four hits, including two doubles, and scored four runs and an RBI. Jimenez finished the night with three RBI on two hits and scored twice. Jeff Costello banged out two hits, 2 runs, and an RBI. Josue Feliciano had two hits, a run, and two RBI. Charlie Walsh had 2 hits and drove in a run. Dushey scored and walked twice. Cole Donato picked up the win in relief of Lexington starter Luke Descheneaux. Donato pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits with two strikeouts. Middlesex started Dan Shaw who was facing Lexington for the third time in 10 days. He pitched against them on August 1 in the makeup game and lost 3-2 pitching seven innings at Minuteman Tech. On August 6 he started the first game of the semifinals at East Boston. Shaw pitched 7.2 innings and lost 1-0 in the eighth. Last night he lasted three innings, giving up 10 hits and seven runs. He also faced the Sox on June 3 at Lexington and pitched six scoreless innings in the 0-0 nine-inning tie game. McElroy placed his name in the Lexington Record Book (since 2006) as he tied the team record with his two doubles. His four hits, and four runs, both tied for second most in a playoff game. As a team, the Blue Sox made new entries into their record book. The six doubles are tied for the most in a playoff game, while the 19 hits are tied for third most and the 14 runs are tied for fourth most. Though the series had three games in Lexington, at Minuteman Technical Vocational High School, the Blue Sox never played a game on their home field at Lexington High School. Game one was played in East Boston and the last three games were played at Minuteman Tech. Now the play shifts to Morelli Field and the Blue Sox will go through the entire playoffs without playing at home. This will be the eighth time the Chiefs and Blue Sox have met in the finals and the first since 2016. That season ended a six-year run of Lexington and the Chiefs playing in the finals. By Bruce Hack, Lexington Team Historian

(Malden, MA)- The Andre Chiefs got three RBI’s each from Byron Woodman, Teddy Dziuba, and Anthony Perry, on the way to beating the Melrose Americans 13-7 at Maplewood on Thursday night. The win gives the Chiefs a 3-0 semi-final series sweep and a ticket to the ICL’s Championship Series where they will have the opportunity to defend their 2023 title. They will await the winner of the Middlesex Expos-Lexington Blue Sox series which remained tied at 1-1 after last night’s rainout. The Chiefs never looked back after Woodman gave them a quick 3-0 lead when he drilled a three run homer in the bottom of the first inning scoring Teddy Dziuba and Mitchell Schroeder, who had both singled, ahead of him. Aidan Barry’s RBI single, off Chiefs’ starter Evan Walsh, cut the lead to 3-1 in the top of the second. The Chiefs put up three more runs and took a 6-1 lead in the bottom of the second on an RBI single from Tyler Ferdinand and a two RBI double from Dziuba. Chris Klein’s RBI groundout made it a 6-2 game in the top of third. It became an 12-2 affair when the Chiefs tallied six more times in the bottom of the third inning on singles from Woodman, Nate Witkowski, Perry (2 RBI), a Dziuba sacrifice fly, and a Schroeder double. The Americans closed the gap to 12-7 when they put up a couple of runs in the top of the fifth and then added three more in the sixth. The Chiefs scored the game’s final run in the bottom of the sixth to account for the 13-7 final. Klein (2 hits) led the Melrose 14 hit offense with three RBI’s and Nestor, Ian Libby, and Ted Giardina had two hits each. Evan Walsh went five innings to record the win. The lefty gave up nine hits and struck out three. A.J. Rourke (1 inning, 5 hits, 3 runs, 1K) and Cameron Breault, who threw a hitless seventh, also worked for the Chiefs. Brandon McMahon went two innings and took the loss. Bailey Taylor Black, David Hunter, and Ronnie Luke also pitched for the Americans. The Chiefs will enter the ICL finals with an overall record of 22-6 . The Americans finish the 2024 campaign with an overall record of 16-10-1 which included an eight game winning streak to conclude the regular season. Games three and four of the Expos-Blue Sox series are now scheduled for Minuteman Vocational in Lexington on Friday at 7:00 PM and Sunday at 6:45 PM. If a game five is required it will be played on Monday at a time and location to be determined.