Troy's Carissa Kramer connects for a grand slam during Wednesday's Big 10 game against Amsterdam at Troy. (J.S. Carras — The Record)

The Flying Horses captured the Big 10 title this afternoon with a 6-4 victory over Amsterdam. And what a big win it was. Had Troy lost, there would have potentially been a four-way tie atop the league and the seedings would be determined by a series of coin flips.
"We didn't want our fate to be determined by coin flips," said head coach Lisa Merritt. "We took fate into our own hands."

It is Troy's third straight Big 10 title.

And they did it with the long ball, their forte. Meg Beditz ripped a leadoff solo shot in the first and Carissa Kramer lined a grand slam into the right-centerfield gap, giving Troy a 5-4 lead.
Freshman hurler Liz Belleville rebounded after giving up three runs in the first and struck out seven. She also mowed down the last nine batters in order, preventing any comeback rallies by the Lady Rams.

It was also senior day for Troy's Beditz, Nia Rowe, Gina Angriasano and Sam Rivet. All contributed. Shortstop Beditz and second baseman Rowe made a number of key defensive plays in the late innings. Angriasano singled and came around to score an insurance run in the sixth. Rivet laid down a perfect sac bunt in the sixth, moving Angriasano to second.

We will see who Troy matches up with in the class AA sectionals on Tuesday when the brackets are released. The Flying Horses are also back in the state rankings, moving up to the 20 spot in the latest poll released Wednesday evening.

Check out the full story in Thursday's Record.
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Elsewhere, it was nice to see Saratoga and Shen on TW3 tonight, but it would have been better to see a few local newscameras at regular season games. The only time I saw TV cameras this season was at the first Shen-Colonie game on May 5th.
The Suburban Council may be the strongest in the area top to bottom, but other leagues (Big 10, Colonial, Wasaren and WAC) all have very good teams as well.
I am interested to see how the TV stations cover softball during the sectionals.

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Cohoes kept swinging the hot bats, beating Schalmont 16-6. Jessica Dearstyne hit two doubles and Steph LaDue hit a triple and a single as the Tigers (11-4, 11-10) prevailed in a Colonial Council game.
Megan Welcome also tripled for Cohoes.

In other Colonial Council news, Lansingburgh moved up to No. 7 in the latest state poll after claiming the league title on Tuesday.

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In baseball, Matt Murphy slugged a double and a single and drove in three runs to lead the Flying Horses to an 13-8 Big 10 victory over the Brothers.
Matt Marsh added two singles and two RBIs for Troy (6-9, 8-11).
Mike Patnode hit a double and a single and drove in three runs for CBA (11-6, 10-5). AJ Ragone chipped in with a double and two RBIs.

Tamarac 3, Lansingburgh 0: Chris Ryan’s two-run single and Eric Talbot’s run-scoring single broke open a scoreless tie in the sixth inning in the Bengals (6-7, 10-10) non-league win.
Chris Ryan's brother Brad fired a one-hitter for Tamarac in the victory.
Frank Castiglione singled for the Knights (9-7, 11-9) lone base hit.

Stillwater 12, Mechanicville 3: Brian Byer made two superb catches to keep the Warriors in the game and Chris Weaver hit a double and scored a run as Stillwater won a non-league game.
Starting pitcher Nick D’Alberto also went two-for-four and scored three runs for Stillwater.
Mechanicville’s Brian Mariano hit a triple and scored a run.


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Look below for the latest section II standings and the state rankings released just minutes ago.
-- Will Montgomery

	League		Overall
	Wins	Losses	Wins	Losses
School
Big 10
Troy* (AA, 20)	10	2	15	7
Schenectady	9	3	9	10
CCHS	8	3	11	7
Amsterdam	7	4	10	7
Albany	2	9	4	17
Bishop Gibbons	2	9	2	13
Bishop Maginn	1	9	1	12
Suburban Council
Blue Division
Shenendehowa* (AA, 2)	13	0	19	2
Colonie	8	5	16	5
Saratoga	6	7	10	8
Shaker	6	7	7	8
Gold Division
Columbia	8	5	15	5
Bethlehem	7	5	14	7
Guilderland	6	7	13	8
Ballston Spa	3	10	7	11
White Division
Niskayuna (AA, 9)	11	2	19	2
Burnt Hills	7	6	12	8
Mohonasen	1	12	5	14
Averill Park	0	10	2	11
Colonial Council
Lansingburgh* (A, 9)	15	1	18	2
Mechanicville (C, 3)	13	2	15	6
Cohoes	11	4	11	10
Holy Names	10	6	12	8
Cobleskill	8	8	11	8
Ravena	6	9	10	12
Voorheesville	3	10	4	14
Schalmont	3	13	7	15
Watervliet	0	14	0	14
Wasaren League
Hoosic Valley* (B, 1)	13	0	15	0
Schuylerville (B, 13)	10	3	13	6
Greenwich	7	5	12	8
Granville	7	6	10	7
Hoosick Falls	6	6	10	12
Stillwater	5	8	8	11
Tamarac	3	8	7	13
Cambridge	0	13	0	15
Patroon Conference
Ichabod Crane* (A, 20-T)	17	0	19	2
Chatham	13	5	15	5
Greenville	11	4	11	4
Taconic Hills	11	4	14	4
Coxsackie-Athens	9	8	10	8
Maple Hill	6	8	6	8
Hudson	6	9	6	10
Catskill	3	3	3	3
Cairo-Durham	2	10	2	10
Rensselaer	2	16	2	18
CHVL
Waterford	12	2	15	3
Germantown	10	2	11	4
Ldnville Christian	10	4	10	4
New Lebanon	6	4	6	7
Emma Willard	5	8	5	8
Berlin	4	9	6	12
Albany Academy	3	19	3	6
Heatly	2	11	2	11
Doane Stuart	0	6	0	6

*Denotes league champion

Numbers in parentheses indicate state rankings as of 5/22

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2008 NYSSCOGS/NYSSWA
Softball State Rankings
(Week 6: May 15-21)

Class AA
1 19-2 Bay Shore-11
2 18-2 Shenendehowa-2
3 17-3 East Meadow-8
4 20-2 Fairport-5
5 19-5 Liverpool-3
6 17-2 West Babylon-11
7 16-5 Williamsville North-6
8 16-4 Long Beach-8
9 19-2 Niskayuna-2
10 20-1 FDR-9
11 17-4 East Islip-11
12 17-4 Valley Central-9
13 18-4 Brentwood-11
14 15-5 Yorktown-1
15 12-4 Lancaster-6
16 17-4 Rome Free Academy-3
17 10-3-1 Ketcham-1
18 17-7 Cicero-N. Syracuse-3
19 16-4 Suffern-1
20 14-7 Troy-2
21 14-4 Kingston-9
22 13-3 Kenmore West-6
23 14-6 Carey-8
24 16-7 Horseheads-4
25 18-2 Kings Park-11

Class A
1 14-0 South Glens Falls-2
2 20-1 Victor-5
3 20-1 Seaford-8
4 19-2 East Hampton-11
5 19-1 Pearl River-1
6 22-2 Aquinas-5
7 18-2 Lansingburgh-2
8 16-1 Pittsford Mendon-5
9 15-4 Eastport-South Manor-11
10 16-4 Corning West-4
11 16-3 New Paltz-9
12 18-2 Homer-3
13 14-2 Goshen-9
14 16-1 Mount Sinai-11
15 16-5 Maine-Endwell-4
16 16-1 Malone-10
17 17-4 Floral Park-8
18 12-1 Maryvale-6
19 18-1 Eastchester-1
20 18-2 Ichabod Crane-2
20 21-3 Phoenix-3

Class B
1 15-0 Hoosic Valley-2
2 20-1 Chenango Valley-4
3 21-1 Windsor-4
4 14-1 Fredonia-6
5 15-2 Hampton Bays-11
6 13-3 Westhill-3
7 16-2 Wayland-Cohocton-5
8 17-1 Canton-10
9 15-5 Olean-6
10 15-6 Waterloo-5
11 16-3 Babylon-11
12 12-2 South Jefferson-3
13 13-6 Schuylerville-2
14 12-2 Salmon River-10
15 19-2 Cleveland Hill-6
16 17-5 Canastota-3
17 17-2 Pembroke-5
18 18-5 Pine Plains-9
19 14-7 Albertus Magnus-1
20 11-9 Carle Place-8

Class C
1 18-3 Bolivar-Richburg-5
2 19-1 Sandy Creek-3
3 15-6 Mechanicville-2
4 15-2 Ticonderoga-7
5 13-9 Binghamton Seton-4
6 18-4 Elmira Notre Dame-4
7 19-2 Pulaski-3
8 15-3 Warsaw-5
9 14-5 Immaculata-CHS
10 16-5 Cassadaga Valley-6
11 16-2 Oakfield-Alabama-5
12 16-3 Tioga-4
13 17-3 Onondaga-3
14 16-5-1 Canajoharie-2
15 17-1 Southern Cayuga-4
16 15-1 St. Lawrence-10
17 16-6 Duanesburg-2
18 18-1 Caledonia-Mumford-5
19 15-5 Frewsburg-6
20 15-5 Valhalla-1
20 11-7 Pierson-11

Class D
1 16-0 Chapel Field-9
2 16-4 Afton-4
3 18-1 Ripley-6
4 18-2 Stockbridge Valley-3
5 13-2 Jefferson-4
6 16-3 Elba-5
7 14-3 Argyle-2
8 12-3 Livingston Manor-9
9 16-1 Downsville-4
10 16-4 Fillmore-5
11 15-3 Hartford-2
12 13-4 Crown Point-7
13 12-4 Edwards-Knox-10
14 12-5 Heuvelton-10
15 13-4 Hancock-4
16 15-4 Oriskany-3
17 19-2 Schenevus-4
18 11-3 Sackets Harbor-3
19 11-4 Hinsdale-6
20 13-4 Edmeston-4