POMONA, NY – The New York Boulders are the beneficiaries of a league ruling that saw the former first-place Quebec Capitales forfeit Thursday night’s game due to the use of an illegal player, it was announced Friday evening.

The Frontier League announced that Quebec, which moved into first place in the East Division standings with its win over New York on Thursday, illegally used recent signee Greg Bird during the game and must now forfeit the win.

Frontier League teams are not allowed to add players to the roster after August 14 barring a handful of exceptions. Quebec was in violation of the exception that a player who is ruled out for the season due to injury after the deadline can be replaced by a player of the same position.

Bird, the former New York Yankees first baseman, was signed as an injury replacement for an outfielder and was listed as such on the Capitales’ roster. The 6-foot-3 left-handed slugger would remain eligible so long as he played outfield and not first base, as he did Thursday night. Playing Bird out of position resulted in Quebec’s forfeiture of the game and dropped the Capitales to 57-35 on the season — half a game back of the New Jersey Jackals (57-34) in the standings.

“We appreciate the honesty and transparency shown by manager Pat Scalabrini and the Capitales organization during our investigation of this unfortunate situation,” Frontier League deputy commissioner Steve Tahsler said in a statement Friday evening. “While we do not believe that Quebec had any ill intent, unfortunately a violation occurred, and we need to enforce the associated rule.” 

The Boulders, who moved dropped into a fourth-place tie with Sussex County (52-40) following Thursday’s result, have been credited the win and now move into third place and possession of the final playoff spot following the ruling. New York (53-39) shares the same record as the Tri-City ValleyCats (53-39), but will possess the final playoff spot due to winning the season series as a tiebreaker.

The tiebreaker will not come into play for long, however. New York plays New Jersey on Friday in a doubleheader that will feature a continuation of a suspended game from July 17 and a regularly scheduled game. Tri-City plays at Trois-Rivieres (37-55) on Friday at 7:05 p.m. New York has four total games remaining on the schedule, while Tri-City has just three games left.

For information on Boulders tickets, value packs and more, visit the Boulders’ official website at www.nyboulders.com.