Prep Talk

Playing catch (up) with some summer hoops

I had a summer break that started as soon as the 2010-11 season concluded, and now I'm back -- and here to throw some notes out regarding some summer news and notes ... 

* Late in the spring season we told you about the BCANY Hoops Festival set for Johnson City from Aug. 5-7. The event seems like a great one, and it's one that came about due to the unfortunate absence of the Empire State Games this summer. 

The roster has been selected by the coaching staff of head coach Larry Jones (Depew) and assistants Mike Haskell (retired Pioneer) and Mike Berkun (Medaille):

Reggie Agbeko (St. Joe's), Stan Wier (who has transferred back home to East Aurora), Sterling Taplin (Williamsville North), Ryan Whelpley (Walsh), Matt Hart (Canisius), Aaron Frasier (Seneca), Aaron White (Canisius), Jamaal Carter (City Honors), Adam Weir (Canisius), Jordan Williams (Bishop Timon-St. Jude).

Alternates are: Matt McDonald (Canisius), Demone Harris (Timon), Kyle Kobis (Timon), Derrick Sekuterski (Depew).

The team will play Long Island on Friday, Aug 5 at 4:30 p.m. On Saturday, Aug. 6, the Buffalo team plays New York City at 9 a.m. and Hudson Valley at noon. Saturday's evening session includes a dunk contest and three-point contest at 4:30 p.m.; a parent clinic on recruiting at 5:30 and a player clinic with college coaches at 6:30.

The event concludes on Sunday, Aug. 7 with the seventh-place game (9 a.m.), fifth-place game (10:30 a.m.), consolation (noon) and championship (1:30 p.m.).

While the event is being run by BCANY, there are some expenses that will need to be covered for teams and players (food, lodging, transportation -- costs mostly taken care of by the ESG during the Games). The squad is seeking sponsorships -- if you are interested in helping the team defray some costs, call Jones at (585) 746-8327.

This team deserves some serious commenting -- that squad is a really good one, a much better collection than I expected for what is a startup event this year. Great talent, great depth, great mixture of schools. Excellent job by the basketball community in getting the word out and credit the coaching staff for what must have been some difficult choices after the tryouts. 

* Speaking of some good hoops competition, this weekend might be the Taste of Buffalo but fans can get a taste of hoops up in Niagara Falls. Some top programs are in action at the Niagara PAL Team Camp at Niagara Falls. Here's the lineup: 

Friday: 5 p.m. -- Main gym, Niagara Falls vs. Canisius; Aux. gym, St. Joe's vs. Niagara-Wheatfield; 6 p.m. -- Batavia vs. Grand Island; Aux. gym, Wilson vs. Holland; 7 p.m. -- Main gym, Jamestown vs. Sweet Home.

Saturday: 9 a.m. -- Main gym, St. Joe's vs. Niagara Falls; Aux. gym, Canisius vs. Jamestown; 10 a.m. -- Main gym, Sweet Home vs. Wilson; Aux. gym, Batavia vs. Niagara-Wheatfield; 11 a.m., Main gym, Grand Island vs. Holland.

Single elimination tournament begins at noon, with championship at 5 p.m.

There is a $2 admission for fans 13 and older.

* I will hopefully hit some summer events of all sorts -- I'll be soon selling raffle tickets to benefit the Tom Borrelli Award and Scholarship Fund. We have some great prizes and it's a great cause as we continue to honor our fallen coworker. 

The third Borrelli Award for boys and the inaugural Borrelli Award for girls will be announced later this month and the winners will receive their trophies at the July 27 Tom Borrelli Golf Tournament at Holland Hills. For those interested in golfing ($100 per person) or donating, please email me at kmcshea@buffnews.com. 

* By the way, the spring All-WNY teams and all-league teams (for baseball, softball and boys and girls lacrosse), which have been published over the last month, have all been collected at the high school home page.

---Keith McShea

(@KeithMcSheaBN on Twitter)

buffalonews.com/high-schools     facebook.com/preptalkblog     twitter.com/bufnewspreptalk

Live from Class A Far West Regional baseball: Hamburg falls to V-Pittsford-Sutherland, 6-0 (with video)

Hello from Dwyer Stadium in Batavia -- as the baseball announcers would say -- on a beeee-autiful evening for baseball. We're here for the Class A Far West Regional game between Section VI champion Hamburg and Section V (Rochester area) champion -- and defending state champion -- Pittsford-Sutherland.

This is my first visit to Dwyer and I love the place. Gotta put it on my list to get out here to watch the Muckdogs muck it up some night.

7:11 p.m. Game time was scheduled for 7, but Hamburg is still taking infield at the moment, with Pittsford-Sutherland yet to do so. The start was pushed back due to the Section V Class D final being played beforehand.  

If you are computer bound instead of out enjoying this lovely evening at a high school baseball game ( :-) ), check out some fine work by two of our summer interns.

Ryan Marfrut covered Game Two of the Georgetown Cup championship series, which Canisius closed out with a thrilling, come-from-behind, 5-4 victory over St. Francis. Check out the live blog from Coca-Cola Field. Bryan Tenney and the Crusaders win their third straight cup. Those guys love playing for the Cup in June. 

Sam Kilb is now in the driver's seat at Coca-Cola Field, covering the Class AA Far West Regional between Clarence and Victor. Check out the live blog.

7:27 p.m. Umpires and coaches meeting at home plate. 

Usually you just hear the synthesizers of Europe's "Final Countdown" when you are at a sporting event. We have had the pleasure of hearing the entire song while the coaches and umpires meet. 

Lineups: 

Hamburg (15-9): Leadoff Jordan Pytlak ss, Tyler Herr 1b, Brian Castonguay 2b, Michael Kerr 3b, James Zemla cf, Tyler Shaw dh (for Sam Hogan p), Eric Simoncelli c, Jake Dehlinger rf, Nolan Ringo lf. 

Pittsford-Sutherland (22-2): Leadoff Hunter Merill lf, Jordan Swisher c, Brad Kacza ss, Zach Salvia 1b, Nick Barra 2b, Grand Heyman cf, Jeff Kay rf, Matt Barra dh (for Michael Gibbs p), Spencer Lowe 3b.

Solid, enthusiastic crowd on hand for Hamburg, including about 20 purple T-shirt-wearing students at the top of one bleacher. No such student section from Pitt-Sutherland. 

7:38 p.m. First pitch, and its a strike from Gibbs. 

There's a big glare as the sun is setting over left field. Right now it is hovering over the foul pole so it shouldn't be too much of a problem, if at all, for batters. It's a slight problem for sportswriters. 

7:45 p.m. The top of the first was a very eventful one for Hamburg, which is NOT happy, and it appears they have good reason to be.

After a pop out by Pytlak, Herr and Castonguay each reached on slow rolling singles between third and short. Kerr bounced one to short, but the last one was a big hop that couldn't be handled for an error -- could have been a double play, but the bases were loaded. 

Zemla bounces one to third, and Lowe does well to get to third for the force, then he plants and throws to first. The call of "Out!" is one that is disagreed with by most of the press box, and many in the stands, certainly if the fans were from Hamburg. 

The first base umpire (there are four working this championship game), did the standard umpire move after a controversial call and immediately went for a walk out into right field. Hamburg coach Steve Chaffee came out and walked all the way out to right and was very demonstrative in his disagreement. 

I have the iPhone video and I'll post it as soon as I'm able, which might not be until after the game. The play is closer than it appeared in person, but the video looked safe as well.

Here it is (posted in the seventh): 

Middle of the first, no score. 

7:56 p.m. A great response from Hogan on the mound, as he strikes out the side -- the last two sandwiched around a walk. End of the first, no score. 

8 p.m. No drama in the top of the second. Three straight grounders and three straight 6-to-3s in the scorebook for Shaw, Simoncelli and Dehlinger. 

8:07 p.m. A strikeout of Nick Barra starts the inning, and after an error on the second baseman, Jeff Kay grounded to second and it became a 6-4-3 double play on which first baseman Herr made a very nice stretch. End of the second, no score. 

8:14 p.m. Hamburg not happy again. After a leadoff sharp single up the middle by Ringo, Pytlak hit a very high pop to right. On an I-got-it-you-got-it, the ball lands in between the right fielder and the second baseman. The right fielder picks it up and throws to second for the force, and while it was a close play, it appears that Hamburg again gets a tough call as Ringo is called out. It goes as a 9 to 6 fielder's choice.

After a stolen base by Pytlak, it got even worse for Hamburg fans. Herr grounds to the shortstop, who forces Pytlak to scamper back to second and he throws wide to first. The first baseman comes off the bag and does the sweep tag, but I didn't see any contact. The better evidence is another shocked reaction by Hamburg's first base coach, and even better is Herr's instantaneous reaction that he wasn't touched. More hollers from the Hamburg fans and more incredulousness from the press box (not just me). 

Chaffee again comes out to express his frustration. Every trip has been deserved. 

But that's that. Middle of the third, no score.  

8:26 p.m. After a lineout to center on which Zemla makes a nice play to come in and nab as he went to the grass, and a groundout to third by Lowe, Merill gets Pitt-Sutherland's first hit of the day with a sharp liner to left. Merill stole second.

Swisher followed with a sharp single up the middle on a 2-2 pitch and Merill came around to score.

Ouch. Slow grounder to second on what looks like an inning-ender, but the throw is wide of first and Sutherland has runners at second and third for clean-up batter Salvia.

Salvia lines one down the third base line for big trouble for Hamburg -- the ball rolls around in the corner as the two runs score. The ball is dug out in time to nab Salvia -- who inexplicably stopped between second and third -- on a tag-out play at third to end the inning.

After three innings, Pitt-Sutherland 3, Hamburg 0. 

8:32 p.m. Hamburg with a mini-threat as, after a Castonguay strikeout, Kerr reached on an error by the shortstop after a high throw, then moved to second on a groundout to third by Zemla. But the inning ended with Shaw softly lining to second. Middle of fourth: Pitt-Sutherland leads, 3-0.

The sun has gone down over left field. Whew. View from the press box is now a sunglass-free deal.

8:39 p.m. Pitt-Sutherland adds another run and Hamburg makes a pitching change. Nick Barra grounded out to lead off, then lefty Heyman fisted a single to left and moved to second on an errant pickoff throw. Kay then rapped a single to left to drive in Heyman and, soon after, Chaffee was walking to the mound for the change.

Zemla comes in to pitch while Shaw, who had been the DH, goes to left field, and Ringo moves from left to center.

8:44 p.m. One batter and two outs for Zemla as Pytlak fields a grounder to short, steps on second and throws to first for the double play. End of the fourth: Pitt-Sutherland leads, 4-0.

8:49 p.m. A quick inning for Hamburg. Simoncelli gave a ball a ride to deep left center but it was tracked down smoothly by Heyman, Dehlinger grounded to short and Ringo flew out to right. Middle of fifth: Pitt-Sutherland, 4-0.

9:02 p.m. After the rough start with the umpires, Hamburg hasn't helped itself. Too many mistakes. A groundout to short by Lowe is followed by a walk to Merill; a fly out to center by Swisher is followed by a walk to Kaczka, and a passed ball gives P-M runners at second and third. A Salvia grounder to second could have ended the inning again, but the ball stays down and through the legs of the second baseman and both runners come in to score. The inning ends with a Barra groundout to second.

End of fifth: Pitt-Sutherland leads, 6-0. 

9:16 p.m. Three-up, three-down in the top of the sixth; Zemla strikes out two in the bottom of the sixth. Hamburg has three outs left. End of six: Pitt-Sutherland leads, 6-0.

9:23 p.m. Two singles, two strikeouts and a pop-out and it's over. 

We have a FINAL SCORE: Pittsford-Sutherland 6, Hamburg 0.

---Keith McShea
(@KeithMcSheaBN on Twitter)

buffalonews.com/high-schools     facebook.com/preptalkblog     twitter.com/bufnewspreptalk

Live from Georgetown Cup Game Two: Canisius beats St. Francis, 5-4, for title

4:02 p.m. We're live from Coca-Cola Field as Canisius and St. Francis are getting ready to take the field. Just a reminder that this is game two of a three game series. Canisius won game one on Sunday at Northtown Center, 5-1.

Senior Josh Vaccaro gets the start on the mound for Canisius, with senior Evan Briggs, who will attend RIT next year, starting for St. Francis.

4:38 p.m. Mid 2nd St. Francis 1 Canisius 0: The Red Raiders draw first blood as Dallas Szustak starts the second inning off with a hard line drive that made it's way into the far corner of the stadium. The senior hustled for a triple and was driven in on the next at bat by senior Nicholas DiRienzo on a ground out.

St. Francis threatened in the inning again after a single and a walk. But Canisius avoided further damage with a Vaccaro strike out and a jumping catch by first baseman Joe Gagliano. 

5:17 p.m. Mid 4th St. Francis 4 Canisius 0: St. Francis strikes again this time with a two RBI single from senior Robert Harrington in the top of the fourth. The inning started off with a walk, followed by a bunt that Canisius failed to get an out on. Another walk loaded the bases and Harrington struck.

On the very next at bat, Canisius over threw second while trying to get Harrington. The play allowed for Junior Craig Matthew to advance from third and score the third run of the inning.

5:32 p.m. Top 5th St. Francis 4 Canisius 0: Canisius gets it's first hit off Briggs in the fourth with two outs. Senior Gordon Lyons followed the hit with a lengthy at bat, resulting in a walk. But, Briggs pulls out a great play by picking Lyons leading off at first for the third out. So far Briggs has 6 strike outs with three walks.

5:36 p.m. Mid 5th St. Francis 4 Canisius: Update on Vaccaro now. The senior just struck out two more in a 1-2-3 fifth. That gives him six strike outs with five walks, while allowing four hits.

6:16 p.m. Top 7 St. Francis 4 Canisius 4: After starting off the sixth by giving up a single and a walk St. Francis decided to pull Briggs. The senior gave up three hit with three walks and seven strike outs. 

Mercyhurst bound senior Michael Wagner came in to replace Briggs and walked his first batter. Up next was junior Tom Maxwell who drove two runs in with a hard double to left center. Wagner regained his composure with a strike out.

But, Canisius struck again though when Vaccaro grounded out to drive in senior Alex Heuer. Canisius then brought in junior Maurice Jordan to pinch hit. With two outs Jordan hit a hard line drive to left center to drive in the games tying run. In the sixth inning alone Canisius got three hits with four runs. Before that the team only had one hit.

6:30 GAME OVER St. Francis 4 Canisius 5: Senior Alex Heuer clinched the Georgetown Cup for Canisus with a walk off double to deep left. Heuer drove in junior Marc DiLeo who was on base after a one out single. 

Canisius has won the Georgetown Cup in an amazing comeback victory.

 

---Ryan Marfurt

Baseball regional schedule shuffle

Some changes in the Far West Regionals in baseball announced today by Section VI:

* The Class C regional between Frewsburg and Section V's Cuba-Rushford has been moved to Jamestown's Diethrick Park at 4 p.m. The game was originally scheduled for Niagara Falls' Sal Maglie Stadium. 

* The Class D regional that includes Pine Valley will be played at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Batavia's Dwyer Stadium. The game was scheduled for Monday but the Section V final was pushed back to today, thus the delay. 

Check out the blog later for updates from Game Two of the Georgetown Cup championship series (4 p.m.) at Coca-Cola Field, the Class AA regional featuring Clarence (7 p.m.) at Coca-Cola Field and the Class A regional featuring Hamburg (7 p.m.) at Batavia's Dwyer Stadium.  

---Keith McShea
(@KeithMcSheaBN on Twitter)

buffalonews.com/high-schools     facebook.com/preptalkblog     twitter.com/bufnewspreptalk

Check out the online standings

This was asked about in last night's chat, and we're glad to have an answer one night later.

Our standings page -- which is also available through a link on the high school home page under the Scholastic Spotlight heading -- is updated with spring sports.

First of all, our apologies on the delay of having the page up. It's been part of a huge overhaul in how we take scores, a process which began with basketball for the winter and then moved on to all sports for the spring.

The standings for most team sports are included, along with all scores that have been reported to us. The standings are based off of those scores.

If any standings are incomplete and/or there are scores missing, it's most likely due to the same reason: That the scores weren't reported to us (we certainly may have goofed on some things, but the vast majority of missed games are due to them never being called in by coaches -- which is an unfortunate circumstance that just shouldn't happen).  

We also realize the one page is a lot to digest. We plan on upgrading the page with links that will take you directly to certain sports (like the ones on our scoreboard page -- which can be used to view the scores and future scheduled games through its clickable calendar).

Ultimately we hope to have separate pages for each sport. We have a lot more planned beyond that and will be working on a lot of things that we'll add for the 2011 fall season. 

If you have any suggestions for improvements or upgrades, please comment on this post, e-mail me (linked below), or use the Twitter or facebook links below. Thanks very much for your patience as we continue to improve buffalonews.com's high school coverage.  

---Keith McShea
(@KeithMcSheaBN on Twitter)

buffalonews.com/high-schools     facebook.com/preptalkblog     twitter.com/bufnewspreptalk

ESG Day Four: Western men's hockey, men's open hoops, women's open soccer, synchro take gold

The final day of the Empire State Games has fewer events, but they are all going on at nearly the same time.

We'll fill you in as soon as we're able.

9:48 a.m. Allen Wilson reports that the Western men's scholastic basketball team won the bronze medal with a 75-64 victory over Long Island. 

11:15 a.m. Update from Amanda Bremer at hockey: Western beats Hudson Valley, 7-1, to win the gold medal in the round-robin competition. I'm at Buffalo State where Western will try to win its 32nd gold in 32 Games.

12:17 p.m. We have a report from Allen Wilson that the Western men's open basketball team has won gold. The Western synchro team did win it's 32nd straight gold.

2:19 p.m. Thanks to TML for the boys lacrosse report below as Western won bronze with a 13-7 win over Adirondack -- just about where you would expect them, I suppose, a quality result; at the same time anything less would be a disappointment considering the team's aim to take down Central or Long Island. 

Other results rolling in ...

Marquel Slaughter reports from the North French Soccer Complex that the women's open team won gold with a 2-1 victory over Central while the women's scholastic team fell, 1-0, to Adirondack and took silver. The men's open team lost the bronze game, 2-0.

The baseball medal games, postponed from yesterday to today due to inclement weather, were not played at all. The field must have been too soaked. Western, which was leading in the bronze game, was awarded the bronze based on the standings after the preliminaries. Long Island took gold and Central silver; Western suffered very close losses to both.

3:05 p.m. Just got word from a media brother of mine that the Western women's open hoops team took silver after falling to New York City in the gold game.

4:10 p.m. Overheard in the media room -- Western women's lacrosse fell in the gold medal game, 17-7, to Long Island.

7:43 p.m. Heading back to the office to finish up some more ESG stuff. Whewwww.

11:26 p.m. I just put up a video-related post -- check out a nice wrapup video of the Games by News Reporter Denise Jewell Gee as well as some iPhone clips, including a resounding end to the women's scholastic volleyball gold medal match.

11:27 p.m. I hereby declare the 2010 Buffalo Empire State Games over for The Buffalo News, buffalonews.com and the Prep Talk blog. Be sure to check out the stuff in Monday's paper and on the Web (some is up now).

The countdown to the first day of high school football practice is 22 days.

---Keith McShea

buffalonews.com/highschool     facebook.com/preptalkblog     twitter.com/bufnewspreptalk

ESG Day Three: Western softball, girls hockey win gold; golden sweep for volleyball

Hello from Day Three of the Empire State Games, where I'll keep you updated with some action early in the day along with my travels.

12:50 p.m. Western softball will play Long Island for the gold -- but the game has been moved up from 3 p.m. to 1:30 at the Audubon Recreation Complex due to poor weather forecast for this evening.

In baseball, the games have been moved up as well. The bronze medal game will start immediately after the 1 p.m. game between Western and Central; with the gold medal game (originally scheduled for 7 p.m.) starting immediately after the bronze.

If Western wins, it plays for gold; if not I believe they are headed for the bronze game. 

It's a good move by Games officials because of the poor forecast later in the day, when showers are supposed to move in.

12:55 p.m. The Western women's hockey team beat Adirondack, 7-0, this morning and will playing for an undefeated round-robin record and a gold medal when it faces Long Island at 6:30 p.m. at Audubon.

Long Island is also undefeated, although it has two wins and two ties. Western is 4-0. By points, I think LI could win the gold on a tiebreaker if it beat Western because it would have beaten them head-to-head. No matter what, it should be a great finishing game.

3:34 p.m. After a lot of running around, some big news.

WESTERN SOFTBALL WINS THE GOLD MEDAL with a 3-0 victory over Long Island. Lindsay (Garbacz) Morris pitched the shutout while Michelle Fridey had a two-out, two-run single in the top of the seventh for some big insurance runs. I'll have video posted soon hopefully.

Western baseball, however, will play for bronze after falling to Central, 2-1, in eight innings.

6:32 p.m. We're back after a stop in the media center and some major coordinating with our ESG team -- we're at Alumni Arena for the finales in volleyball.

7 p.m. WESTERN WOMEN'S OPEN VOLLEYBALL WINS THE GOLD, beating Central in four games. It's the first of four finals in which Western can win gold. Western won, 25-23, 22-25, 25-19, 25-14. In the fourth game, Western was just too much for a Central team that seemed to run out of gas.

7:19 p.m. Make it two-for-two for Western. MEN'S SCHOLASTIC VOLLEYBALL HAS WON GOLD. It won the first game in a marathon but didn't have as much drama in the next two in a 30-28, 25-18, 25-20 victory over Long Island.

A report from photographer Jim McCoy, who I couldn't hear too well on the phone: Western and Long Island are tied in the final women's hockey game.

7:38 p.m. The women's scholastic final has just started as top-seeded Western takes on Long Island. The men's open final follows with Western, the second seed entering today's playoff round, meeting Adirondack.

8:10 p.m. Long Island making an early statement in the women's scholastic game. LI took the first game, 27-25, and went up, 9-1, to start the second. Only twice in the history of Games volleyball, which goes back to the first Games in 1978, has a region other than Western or Long Island won the gold, and it hasn't happened in 28 years (Hudson Valley won 1980 and 82).

8:24 p.m. The second-longest team gold-medal streak is definitely in jeopardy -- Long Island won the second game, 25-16. Western has won seven straight golds.

8:30 p.m. Word passed along from a friendly media coworker. WESTERN WOMEN'S HOCKEY HAS WON GOLD after scoring two late goals against Long Island.

8:48 p.m. Things are tightening up here -- Western wins the third game, 25-18, to cut the Long Island lead to 2-1. One important thing to note: If Long Island wins this match, there is an additional game to determine the gold because Long Island came out of the loser's bracket of today's playoffs.

9:08 p.m. Western has tied it up. Great effort to even things up at 2-2 with a 25-14 victory in which Western was in control from the start.

9:24 p.m. Western got off to a 5-1 start before the match was delayed at least five minutes, maybe 10, when Long Island protested a call. A committee was formed, a player had to sign a paper, I couldn't believe it. It was like filing an accident report with the cops. Western keeps rolling -- it is up, 10-3, in a game that will go to 15.

9:32 p.m. WESTERN WOMEN'S SCHOLASTIC VOLLEYBALL HAS WON GOLD. The home team lived up to their sing-song-ing with a 15-10 victory in the fifth and deciding game. Quite a comeback for Western. Fun stuff to watch, as it always is here on ESG Saturday.

10:59 p.m. Back from interviews and writing my story for first edition -- without the men's open game. Talk about some serious hitting in this one. Whoa. Western won the first game, 25-21, and the second, 25-22.

11:22 p.m. WESTERN MEN'S OPEN VOLLEYBALL HAS WON GOLD after a 25-21, 25-22, 25-14 victory over Adirondack. 

The victory gives Western a sweep of the volleyball medals for the first time since it accomplished the feat in 2002. Western also won all four in 1993.

12:20 a.m. Back at the media center after redoing the end to the volleyball story. Found out that astoundingly the women's open basketball had a four-way tie for first place and that Western will play for gold after winning some sort of a mini-game. Wow.

See you tomorrow for end of the Games.

---Keith McShea

buffalonews.com/highschool     facebook.com/preptalkblog     twitter.com/bufnewspreptalk

All of spring's All-WNY teams have sprung

In case you missed them (I missed one this past weekend when I was covering racing at Watkins Glen), all of the spring season's All-Western New York teams have been announced.

All spring teams are chosen by panels of coaches. Check out the high school homepage or use these links:

Baseball: Story and honor roll.

Softball: Story and honor roll.

Boys lacrosse: Story and honor roll.

Girls lacrosse: Story and honor roll. 

---Keith McShea

buffalonews.com/highschool     facebook.com/preptalkblog     twitter.com/bufnewspreptalk

Live from the state championships: Olean softball loses in final; Clarence softball, Tonawanda and Frewsburg baseball all fall in semis

Four Section VI teams and a ton of Section VI track and field athletes will by vying for state championships today.

While reporters Mary Jo Monnin and Amanda Bremer and photographer Mark Mulville (check out his photo gallery from Day One) are at Vestal High School for the state championships in track and field (see leonetiming.com and armorytrack.com), four local teams will try to win state titles: Clarence and Olean softball at Waterloo and Tonawanda and Frewsburg baseball in the Binghamton area. 

Just sit back -- or check in from time to time -- and hit the refresh button.

11 a.m. I'm en route to Binghamton; I'll pass on softball updates from correspondent Nate Beutel as soon as I get them.

11:40 a.m. Nate reports from the softball final four in Waterloo that Olean leads, 2-0, after the first inning while Clarence is scoreless.

12:10 p.m. Olean lead is now 5-0 in the fourth while Clarence is up, 1-0, in the fifth.

12:48 p.m. Hello from NYSEG Stadium in Binghamton, where Tonawanda finished with some pregame drills.

Another report from Nate from Waterloo. We have a FINAL SCORE in the CLASS B SOFTBALL SEMIFINAL: Olean 5, Dobbs Ferry 0. Olean will play Section IV's Chenango Valley for the state title in a 3:30 p.m. scheduled start.  

Clarence and Bay Shore are tied at 2-2 in the seventh inning.

12:54 p.m. Pregame announcements have begun following the umpires' meeting at the plate.

Tonawanda has brought a large (and loud) group of students, who are standing behind the dugout in maroon shirts. One of them waves a large maroon flag with "Tribe" written on it. There are a bunch of maroon-clad parents and adult fans on hand as well -- looks to me like Tonawanda fans might outnumber those from Westhill -- which is the defending state champion from the Syracuse area -- by just a bit.

1:05 p.m. We're under way in Binghamton ... but first this update from Waterloo (sounds like I'm on TV or something) ... 

We have a FINAL SCORE in the CLASS AA SOFTBALL SEMIFINAL: Bay Shore beats Clarence, 3-2, in the bottom of the seventh. 

Tonawanda has first and second with one out in the top of the first.

1:10 p.m. Westhill gets out of the jam as junior Kevin McAvoy gets Brian McCarthy on a fading lineout to left fielder Mike Fagan and then struck out Mike Tolsma swinging to end the inning. No score, middle of the first. 

1:12 p.m. I'd like to thank Binghamton for putting Class B at NYSEG Stadium, and for Tonawanda making the final four -- which enables us to update this blog from an air-conditioned press box with much-needed power. I'm pretty where Frewsburg is playing -- at Broome Community College -- it's just a baseball field; at least it was two years ago when I covered Gowanda.  

1:18 p.m. Tonawanda starter senior Jesse Zellner gets out of his own jam in the bottom of the first -- stranding a runner on third by striking out junior Mark Syron swinging. No score after one.

1:22 p.m. Tonawanda gets a good start to the second but has it wiped out on an interesting play. Junior Kyle Gallivan reached on a single he dropped into right-center. Ryan McGinnis then grounded to the third baseman, who went to second for the force. The throw was a little high and Gallivan went low to break up the play, and totally upended second baseman t the umpire not only called Gallivan out but ruled McGinnis out as well for Gallivan's illegal slide. Word in the press box was that the out call was made because it was more of a takeout rather than a slide. Tonawanda manager John Frank discussed the call with the umpires but he didn't look outraged or anything. No score after one and a half.  

1:29 p.m. Westhill has taken a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on an RBI single by Greg Schmidt, who served a single to left field. Westhill coach Bob Weismore sent Mike Fagan from second. Left fielder Ryan McGinnis made a good throw that beat Fagan, but the throw was a bit high -- catcher Brian McCarthy leaped to catch the ball and Fagan slid in safely. In a bit of a bad play, Tonawanda players were protesting the call and noone was at second and Schmidt took second. That didn't matter as Dan Karleski flew out to center to end the inning.

1:37 p.m. Westhill with some nice momentum here as McAvoy gets a three-up, three-down inning that began with Joey Warthling grounding out on a slow roller and a nice play by Mike McMullen. Westhill leads, 1-0, in the middle of the third.

1:50 p.m. Westhill is now up, 2-0, after three innings. McMullen led off by rocketing a double over left fielder McGinnis' head and moved to third when Zellner tried to pick him off second -- but noone was covering. Tonawanda moved the infield in and got a groundout from Nathan Nigolian, but Mark Syron hit a sharp single to right through the drawn-in infield to bring in McMullen. Mike Fagan was out on a nice unassisted putout by first basemen Tolsma, who stabbed a sharply hit ball. After a hit batter, McGinnis didn't have to move to catch a line drive to left by Jake Rush. 

1:55 p.m. McEvoy might be getting stronger as the game goes on -- he struck out two, including leadoff man Zellner and Tolsma and getting an easy pop up to second from Gallivan to end the top of the fourth with the lead still 2-0 for Westhill. Sandwiched between the strikeouts was an infield single by Brian McCarthy, whose deep grounder to short was too deep in the hole for McMullen -- who made a great throw but was late. McMullen already has made two great plays in the infield.

2:03 p.m. Update thanks to Jamestown Post-Journal guru Scott Kindberg: Watertown's Immaculate Heart has a 1-0 lead on Frewsburg in the top of the fourth of the CLASS C BASEBALL SEMIFINAL.

2:06 p.m. Westhill tacks on another run for a 3-0 lead after four after an unearned run. Greg Schmidt reached on an infield single, then moved all the way to third when a pickoff attempt by Zellner went high and Schmidt was waved on easily to third. Zellner struck out top-of-the-order batter Dan Karleski and appeared to be out of the inning when McMullen's grounder went to shortstop, but Sean Stich's throw took Tolsma off the bag and McMullen avoided the tag by stumbling across first as Schmidt scored.  

2:14 p.m. Tonawanda gets a leadoff walk from Ryan McGinnis, but two strikeouts and a groundout get Westhill and McAvoy through the top of the fifth with its 3-0 lead. McAvoy went 2-1 on second batter Shane Foster when coach Weismore came to the mound for a meeting -- afterwards, two straight swinging strikes became the first of two strikeouts.

For the bottom of the fifth, Tolsma has come in to pitch for Tonawanda with Zellner moving to first.

2:24 p.m. Tolsma has a quiet inning with just four batters, including a strikeout of leadoff batter Syron, a foul pop and an inning-ending comebacker by Rush after a walk of Corey Hewitt. Westhill leads, 3-0, after five.

2:40 p.m. Tonawanda will head to the top of the seventh in a big hole. Westhill has added two unearned runs for a 5-0 lead and is still batting with two outs in the bottom of the sixth.

2:45 p.m. Reports to the press box have some bad weather coming in as we have one half-inning to go. Tonawanda trails, 5-0, after six innings.

Tonawanda seemed to be in good shape in the bottom of the sixth after a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play. Then Karleski doubled when his long fly ball carried to the left-field corner; he moved to third after the throw to the infield was wild. McMullen hit a grounder to third for a potential inning-ender, but the throw was wild to score a run and move McMullen to second.

2:50 p.m. It was a quick (four batters) top of the seventh and we have a FINAL SCORE in the CLASS B BASEBALL SEMIFINAL: Westhill 5, Tonawanda 0.

3:28 p.m. First things first. We have a FINAL SCORE in the CLASS C BASEBALL SEMIFINAL: Immaculate Heart 4, Frewsburg 0.

Wow. What timing. I'm typing on my laptop in my car in the Broome Community College parking lot as the the rain pours down during a serious thunder-and-lightning storm. 

It started raining right after I talked to Frewsburg coach Jay Grann about his team's loss -- he and the team were disappointed after the Bears fell victim to similar circumstances I just witnessed in Tonawanda's game -- a failure at the plate and in the field.

Frewsburg had beaten Immaculata Heart twice during an early-season Spring Break trip to Myrtle Beach. IHC got one in the second without a hit, added one in the fifth on an RBI single by Connor Caldwell and two more in the sixth on an RBI double by Dustin Exford and an RBI single by Anthony Magovney. 

After Tonawanda lost, I ran down to the field and talked to coach John Frank (he was disappointed but fittingly very proud of his team), ran back up the stands, grabbed my stuff in the press box, asked if anyone knew what was going on at BCC (they didn't), texted Jamestown Post-Journal reporter/photographer extraordinaire Scott Kindberg to see if he knew, zipped the 10 miles north to BCC from downtown (nearby Route 11 to I-81 to BCC right off the exit was smoooooth sailing), as I'm about to turn into BCC got a call from Scott saying that Frewsburg lost, asked Scott if Frewsburg's bus was still there, he says it is and that they're still there, I say "THANK YOU SCOTT!," park my car, find coach Jay Grann, talk with him, take an iPhone picture of his scorebook, take some pictures of the Frewsburg bus (below) and get in my car right before the SER-ious downpour.

4:02 p.m. I'll update the blog with some pictures, and I'll have Olean state championship updates as I working on my story for Sunday's paper. With the battery running low on the laptop and the rain finally having gone away, I think I'll be working on it at the unofficial Buffalo News High School Sports Desk Binghamton Bureau -- the Starbucks across the street from BCC and the BAGSAI softball fields which have hosted state championships in past years.  

4:26 p.m. First update from Nate in Waterloo (and first update from my back-corner table at our Starbucks Bureau) and the CLASS B SOFTBALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIP: Olean and Chenango Valley are scoreless after two innings. I've added some pictures here (I didn't really plan the bus thing).

4:33 p.m. Chenango Valley takes a 1-0 lead in the third.

In other news, I just butchered my order here because I don't speak Starbucks. "Frappuccino is cold, right?" Blank stare from counter dude. "Um, what flavors do I have to pick from?" The dude helped this remedial coffee schmo through it. I had a tasty caramel mocha Frappuccino. He said "caramel" with two syllables. I take mine with three.

5 p.m. Chenango Valley now up, 4-0, in the fifth thanks to some smallball, reports Nate.

5:25 p.m. We have a FINAL SCORE in the CLASS B SOFTBALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIP: Chenango Valley 4, Olean 0. The Huskies only muster two hits in the final.

Ballgame over. Spring season over. 2009-10 high school sports season over.

I'm writing my story now and then its a couple of weeks of vacation -- thanks to all for a memorable season.

* * *

Some additional quotes to what you'll find in the paper ...

Tonawanda coach John Frank:

"One game can't take away the season these boys had. You can't be perfect every game, you're not going to win them all. Obviously we made too many mistakes today. Five errors and no runs aren't going to win you a ball game.

"I'm really proud of these kids, they won the first sectional title in 29 years for Tonawanda, won their first Far West Regional. I'm proud of the boys.

"It happens. Our pitching and our defense has been our strength all year long. Our defense failed us today. That happens, and it's OK.

"The support we've been given by the parents and families and friends and students and teachers and administrators and community -- it's been absolutely overwhelming. It was a fun ride. It was a great season overall. Unfortunately it didn't end the way we'd like, but a great season overall.

"Our ambitions were high [entering the season], absolutely. I told the kids they were special all year long and they went out and proved it.

"We lost a little bit of discipline at the plate. Tte kid did a nice job, but it wasn't anything we haven't seen. The bats have failed us -- actually in the last few games they've failed us -- in sectional final and the Far West Regional, and we knew two runs wasn't going to do it today.

"I said [to his seniors after the game], 'Thank you for putting Tonawanda baseball back on the map.' It was a young team with low numbers four years ago, and they did their job and turned this program around. They can leave their senior season with their head held high even though it didn't end on the way we wanted it to." 

* * *

Frewsburg coach Jay Grann:

"It came down to execution. They executed bunts and good baserunning, and we'd didn't. We had plenty of opportunities too.

"They had a good pitcher -- he mixes his pitches up well. Four hits isn't going to win a game. We gave them their first two runs. The first one scored without a hit, the second one on an error.

"I think we have to take it in perspective - we're playing in the state championships. We had beaten this team twice, 3-2 and 5-1. We knew they had solid pitching but we thought we did too. Our pitcher threw a great game. He definitely deserved a better fate. We didn't back him up offensively or defensively.

"With being No. 1 in the state, 24-0, we did a lot of positive things. We do lose some star players but we're not ruling out coming back next year, It's just one of those games where we didn't execute. We picked the worst time to play the worst game."

---Keith McShea

buffalonews.com/highschool     facebook.com/preptalkblog     twitter.com/bufnewspreptalk

Who will win a state title? Tune in Saturday

Four Section VI teams and a ton of Section VI track and field athletes will by vying for state championships Saturday.

While Vestal High School hosts the state championships in track and field starting today (see leonetiming.com and armorytrack.com), four local teams will try to win state titles on Saturday and we'll have updates here on the blog. 

I'll start my day at Tonawanda baseball's semifinal -- I'll have live updates from that game while I'll be passing on live updates from the Frewsburg semifinal as well as from the Clarence and Olean softball games at Waterloo thanks to correspondent Nate Buetel.

poll by twiigs.com

---Keith McShea

buffalonews.com/highschool     facebook.com/preptalkblog     twitter.com/bufnewspreptalk