Troy's Ryan Clements touches home plate after hitting a three-run home run to bring the Flying Horses within one run during Thursday's Section II Class AA opening round game at Columbia High School. The Blue Devils, however, made four early tallies hold up, posting a 4-3 victory over Troy. (All photos by J.S. Carras - The Record)

Columbia's Nolan Gaige (15) congratulates Blue Devils starter Ian Gaule (10) on a job well done during Thursday's game. Gaule pitched six innings, walking none, to earn the win and Gaule struck out two hitters in the seventh to save the victory for Columbia. Both Gaige and Gaule drew RBI walks in Columbia's three-run first inning against Troy High pitcher Nick Pontari.

"Ian did a tremendous job today," Columbia head coach Chris Dedrick said. "He didn’t walk anybody and had a lot of first pitch strikes."

Columbia's Bobby Peluso (sliding above) scored the Blue Devils' fourth run in the fourth inning on Justin Rebhun's sacrifice fly. Troy catcher Mike Barna was unable to make a clean tag in time after a strong throw from right fielder Ryan Chamberlain.

"I saw Ben (Tidd) hit the ball to right field and I knew I had to be tagging, so I got to third with one out," said Peluso. "Then, I saw Justin’s (Rebhun) fly ball and dug in and got home. It was very heart-pounding."

Columbia shortstop Justin Rebhun prepares to make a throw during Thursday's game. He was 0-for-2 at the plate but drove in the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning.

"It’s not the first time we’ve met in a sectional game," said Dedrick. "It’s always a pretty spirited game. Troy always comes in prepared and they have really competitive, scrappy kids. They played a heck of a game today, absolutely."

Troy will lose eight seniors, each of which played an instrumental role in what was a very exciting 2009 season in the Collar City. The Flying Horses defeated crosstown rival La Salle twice and won the 2009 Uncle Sam Tournament championship.

Make sure to check out Friday's hard copy edition of The Record for more on Thursday's game as well as Troy head coach Curtis Nobles' reaction to the tough 4-3 loss.

Section II baseball brackets.

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Rain washed out the entire slate of softball games on Thursday afternoon and we're still waiting on a new schedule from the Section II committee.
They simply can't move all of Thursday's postponed games to Friday, because the Adirondack Sports Complex in Queensbury is already booked with a full slate of games.
We'll pass on the information and update the digital brackets as soon as possible.

Section II softball brackets.

A number of baseball games were postponed on Thursday and they are all slated to be played Friday at the same locations at times.

In baseball news, the Lansingburgh baseball game on Saturday has been moved to Lansingburgh's home field behind the high school football field. It was originally scheduled to be played in Knickerbacker Park, so you were probably going to park in the same parking lot anyway, but make sure to head over behind the new high school gym for the Knights' Class A quarterfinal game against Mohonasen at Noon.

Friday update: Saturday's Class CC quarterfinal between Voorheesville and Maple Hill will take place at 10 a.m. at Sorensco Park in East Greenbush.
It was originally scheduled for Noon at Maple Hill High School.