Very busy Friday

Didn't the spring season just start?

It sure seems like it, but Jamestown's baseball team -- which led our roundup in Saturday's paper with an 11-7 win over Orchard Park -- is due to finish its ECIC I schedule with four league games next week. Some other sports hold postseason tournaments next week as well.

A look at the calendar tells us there's only just over a month left in the entire high school season -- the state championships will conclude by June 14.

That should make the next five weeks ones to watch. Friday had a little bit of everything -- click here for a rundown of all of Friday's scores.

Be sure to check out our roundup first, but here's some more morsels from Friday's action:

** Jamestown and Lake Shore (which edged Hamburg) weren't the only teams to come up with big wins in ECIC play.

Stewart Kelver led off the bottom of the seventh with a pinch-hit single and later came scored on a sacrifice fly by Matt Landphair as Pioneer beat Tonawanda, 4-3, in ECIC III. Mike George went 3 for 3 and drove in the other three runs while Garrett Pauley struck out 10 in a complete game for the Panthers (11-7, 7-3).

Matt Westfield homered, tripled twice and pitched a complete game as Alden moved to 7-3 in a very competitive ECIC IV with a 10-3 win over Holland. Alden plays two key games at home next week: Monday vs. East Aurora and Wednesday vs. traditional league power Eden.

** City Honors came from behind in each of the last four innings before beating Hutch-Tech, 8-7, in the ninth on in the teams' Cornell Cup League I regular season finale at Delaware Park. The win wrapped up the No.‚3 seed for the playoffs for City Honors (10-5) while Hutch-Tech will be fourth.

Tech went ahead in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, only to have Honors tie the game in the bottom of the inning. Honors' game-winning rally began a triple by senior Chris Johnson (4 for 4); senior Joey Amoia was hit by a pitch and stole second before Connor Hurley's two-out, two-strike, two-run single.

"Some of the spectators said they would have paid $5 to see that game," said City Honors third-year coach Frank Dileo. "It was back and forth all game … they'd go up by one and then we'd tie it."

** The St. Mary's lacrosse team won its first championship in the Interscholastic Athletic Conference just four years after the program started. St. Mary's beat Genesee -- a team based in Batavia -- by a 5-2 score.

"We talked about it all year, we stressed it … this was ours to take, and the boys stepped up," said coach Rob Robinson, who helped start the program. "We played a physical game. The guys took a hit and sacrificed themselves for the good of the team. It was a great effort."

The ILC is composed of a mix of varsity programs like Gow and club programs which are working their way towards reaching varsity status. Robinson said that lacrosse would probably be officially absorbed by St. Mary's next season, which would follow a path to varsity status already taken by schools like North Tonawanda, Lockport, Wilson and Lew-Port.

Robinson lauded former assistant GM Brendan McDaniels, assistant coach Kevin Bardol and former coach Joe Smith, who plays for the Buffalo Bandits, for helping build the program. "Joe Smith took us to another level," said Robinson.

** Amherst lacrosse teams each earned wins against their respective rivals. Amy Simon had seven goals as the defending Class C champion Tiger girls thumped East Aurora, 19-5, in a rematch of last year's Class C final; it was also a much bigger victory than Amherst's 14-11 win on April 11. The Amherst boys got four goals and four assists from Casey Rich while Brent Doerflein had five assists and Matt Allwes made eight saves in an 11-4 win over longtime rival Williamsville East.

** It was an eventful day for West Seneca East. The boys lacrosse team paid tribute to 2005 alumnus A.J. Larson, who died in a car accident last December, in its 15-2 victory over Lake Shore. The Trojans all wore T-shirts reading "A.J." on the front with a No. 7 on the back. Tyler Strassburg had six goals and four assists for East.

In recent years there were plenty of no-hitters thrown by a Chelsea in games involving Williamsville South softball; but South's Chelsea Plimpton is now pitching at St. John's University. Chelsea Dustin of West Seneca East no-hit the Billies Friday, 5-1, as Ally Rzuszutek homered for the Trojans.

From the this-just-in department, I got a call just after midnight from West Seneca East girls track coach Paul Gregoire. The track teams made a trip to the 47th annual Hornell Invitational, with the girls finishing second among 27 schools. Junior Stephanie Smigiera won the 100-meter hurdles (15.3), was fourth in the 400 hurdles (1:09.5) and third in the triple jump (33-5.5 inches) while her sister, eighth-grader Kelly Smigiera, was second in the 100 (13.2 seconds), fifth in the 200 (28.0) and sixth in the high jump (4 feet, 8 inches). Amanda Solly was second in the 1,500 (5:01), Allie Zielinski was second in the 3,000 (11:09) and Cassie Tomasic was second in the shot put (34-1.5). 

So what impressed you Friday? And what do you think the next five weeks have in store?

---Keith McShea