The Bolton Eagles pulled off a surprising upset, by defeating the top seeded Blue Bombers 11-8 in the sectional final at SUNY Plattsburgh’s Chip Cummings Field. The loss snapped the Blue Bombers’ 25 game win streak over Mountain and Valley Athletic Conference opponents, which dated back to May 2022.

It was only the third time in the past two seasons that Lake Placid allowed its opponents to score double digit runs. The other two times were its sub regional match last season, and this year against Northeastern Clinton when the team lost 16-10.

“You can’t take anything away from (Bolton),” Blue Bombers head coach Brian Brandes said. “They came out and they hit.”

The Eagles recorded a game-high 15 hits in the winning effort and every single one of their batters had at least one hit. Bolton’s Tyler Trowbridge led his team with three hits. Liam Foy, William Hens, Jace Hurlbert and Andy Morehouse had two hits each. Sullivan Eager, Jaxon Egloff, Jacob French and Alyas Kennedy each had one.

“We were OK pitching, they (just) hit what we pitched and they did a nice job,” Brandes said.

Jon Caito started on the mound for the Blue Bombers, but was pulled after the third inning. Jarrett Mihill then took over in the fourth, and recorded back-to-back scoreless innings, but, Bolton was able score three runs in both the sixth and seventh inning.

Over the course of the past three seasons, Lake Placid has rarely faced adversity. With seven of its nine starting players having played during on the varsity team since 2022, the squad holds a record of 34-12 during that stretch.

On the first play of the game, the Blue Bombers faced a big challenge when their junior captain Vann Morrelli dislocated his shoulder and was out for the remainder of the contest. Morrelli led the team with a 0.476 batting average and was second on the team in hits and runs this season.

“Losing Vann took a little bit out of the air on the sails, especially on the first play,” Brandes said. “(Whenever) you lose a player of his caliber, it’s always going to throw you off a little bit. You hope to bounce back and we did a couple of times, we just didn’t bounce back enough.”

While trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the first, Lake Placid got on the board when Mihill hit a two-run single, before being driven in by Hyler Isham.

In the second inning, the Eagles reclaimed the lead by scoring four runs to make the score 5-3. Despite allowing Lake Placid to have base runners in scoring positions in back-to-back innings, Bolton escaped the second and third innings without allowing a run.

After Blue Bombers catcher Owen Thomsen made a bobbling catch with his non-glove hand to keep the Eagles off the board in the fourth, teammate Owen Hayes drove in Will Landriault and scored himself on a wild pitch to even the game at 5-5.

Foy gave the Eagles a 7-5 lead when he hit a two-run double in the sixth inning. Foy then scored on an error to push the lead to three runs. After holding Lake Placid without a run in the sixth, Trowbridge hit and RBI single and Foy followed with a two-run single to extended their team’s lead to 11-5.

While trailing by six runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Blue Bombers scored three runs but were unable to mount a comeback.

Mihill led Lake Placid with three hits Caito, Hayes and Isham each had two hits. Thomsen and Max Hyman had one hit each. The Blue Bombers finished the season with a 13-3 record.

Bolton, which improved to 10-6, will take on the winner of Section X, Class D matchup between Parishville-Hopkinton and Lisbon on Wednesday next week.