UTICA —The Utica Blue Sox's roaring offense continued Monday evening, taking care of the visiting Watertown Rapids with an 11-1 win in seven innings at Donovan Stadium.

Utica has outscored opponents 23-4 over the previous two games.

With the win, Utica was a half-game out of first place in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League's Western Division. Utica and Watertown were set to play again Tuesday at Duffy Fairgounds Stadium. Utica had a chance to clinch a playoff spot.

Entering Tuesday, Utica was 26-15 overall and three games ahead of third-place Auburn. The top four teams in each division qualify for the postseason.

Watertown had a 1-0 lead through one inning before Blue Sox starter Evan Esch settled down to retire the final seven Rapids he faced before handing the game off to Itai Spinoza. Before Spinoza would toe the rubber in the fourth however, his offense made sure he had a lead to work with, scoring three in the third. The three-run outburst was highlighted a two-run double from Vernon-Verona-Sherrill grad Dewey Roden.

Roden finished with a team-best four RBIs in the game. He had a team-best 24 RBIs entering Tuesday, which ranked 14th in the PGCBL. Oriskany grad Ryan Enos previously led the team, but has since moved to the Cape Cod League.

Spinoza only allowed a pair of hits in his four innings of relief work while keep Watertown off the scoreboard.

The Blue Sox added four runs of cusion in the fourth inning, once again led by a Roden two-run hit, to make the lead 7-1.

The exclamation point was a four-run inning in the seventh that ended the game via mercy rule. The final knockout punch to Watertown came on a Chris Fernandez single. He had two RBI.