Royals bounced in Owasso

Despite the efforts of Zeb Gaston (above), the Lansingburgh Royals 15-and-under Mickey Mantle team was eliminated at the American Amateur Baseball Congress World Series in Owasso, Okla. on Thursday. (photo courtesy www.owassobaseball.com)

The Royals won their opening game on Tuesday, but dropped games on Wednesday and Thursday in the double elimination, 14-team tournament. Many of the players on this team will be stars on their respective varsity teams next year and will likely be back on Mantle and Connie Mack teams in the summers to come.

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Melvin Roads Post impressive in game No. 1 at American Legion North Atlantic Regional

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The Melvin Roads American Legion Post baseball team scored a 12-2 victory over the New Castle, Del. Post in the opening round of the Mid-Atlantic regional Thursday morning.
Mike Barna hit a three-run home run and doubled and Annibal Maldonado and Bobby Peluso added home runs for Melvin Roads in the triumph.
Matt Montross, who pitched a complete game victory, also doubled twice and hit a single for Melvin Roads.
The East Greenbush-based club will face the winner of Thursday’s game between the Maryland and West Virginia state champions in a winner’s bracket game today at 4:30 p.m.
Live box scores of the games are available at www.baseball.legion.org

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Closer to home, Spring Youth Baseball's nine-and-under team started things off with a win in the Cal Ripken North Atlantic Regionals in Troy on Thursday.

Our colleague Stan Hudy at The Saratogian and The Community News was kind enough to send us a report from the game, which appears below.
Stan will also be offering updates from the tournament on his blog, which you can view by clicking here.


Stan Hudy
For The Record

TROY – The 9-year-old Spring Baseball All-Stars have shown they can win on the big stage, even the biggest, capturing the AABC 2009 Jackie Robinson World Series in Tulsa earlier this year.

On Thursday, they opened the 2009 Cal Ripken Baseball 9-year-old Mid-Atlantic Regional with a thud, but with a win, hoping they had shaken off their doldrums with a 6-4 win before facing three more opponents in pool play at the Spring Baseball Complex.

“They fought tough, but didn’t hit the ball well,” Spring manager Dave Judge said. “The first win is huge, I’m happy with the outcome.

The tournament hosts spotted the Southern New Jersey champions, Montgomery a first-inning one-run lead before posting their own two-run second inning, taking on single runs in the third and fifth innings, doing the most damage in the bottom of the fourth, including a wild run by Brett Young.

Down 1-0 after Montgomery’s Michael Hrudowsky reached on a single and advanced on a single by teammate Brian Giordano and grounder by Joey Schneider. He came around to score on a wild pitch in a shaky first inning.

After their own 1-2-3 first, Anthony Germinero singled to centerfield and moved over on Will Burger’s fielder’s choice that erased leadoff batter Saverio Yamin. Young grounded to the shortstop, but the throw went awry allowing Germinero to score. Burger raced home on a wild pitch, pushing Spring ahead, 2-1.

Spring’s Joe Casale led off the third with a double to right, advanced to third on David Judge’s groundout and scored on another Montgomery pitcher’s wild pitch, pulling ahead, 3-1.

It appeared to be all but over in the fourth after Burger singled to right, stole second and moved to third on another wild pitch. Young grounded to short, but the ball squirted underneath the fielder, allowing Burger to score and Young was on his horse. He also stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch.

Then it was just heads-up base running.

When teammate Connor Sicko struck out, the Montgomery catcher rolled the ball towards the mound and the visitors assumed the inning was over. It wasn’t and Young raced home for the commanding 5-1 lead.

“Our coach always yells to us if the ball is coming in and to slide,” Young said about his early steal. “When he rolled the ball, I was surprised too. Coach yelled to me and I knew I had to go.”

With their backs against the wall, Montgomery battled back in the top of the fifth as the bottom of its order and newly inserted pinch-hitters, Matthew Heidt, Joey Gutterman and Kyle Kuminski each reached on singles to load the bases.

Judge called on Zachary Ziter to come on in relief of starter Connor Sicko to end the threat.

He struck out the first batter and enticed Michael Pedota to a grounder back to the mound that allowed Heidt to score. Hrudowsky reached on a throwing error by the shortstop, allowing both Gutterman and Kuminski to score, cutting the lead, 5-4. A strikeout would end the threat.

Spring sprinted to another run in the fifth, this time it was by David Judge who reached on a two-out walk in the fifth. He ran to second after the throw by the catcher sailed into the outfield and he was off to third. He didn’t have to stop as the throw back over the diamond also went wide, allowing him to score.

Ziter returned for the sixth for a 1-2-3 inning and two additional strikeouts.

“I was just trying to do my best and hoping they wouldn’t hit any doubles,” Ziter said about his relief appearance. “We had to hold them.”

The Spring squad is the focus on the tournament, already as World Series champions and local diamond stars, expecting a tremendous turnout for the tournament, a different experience than traveling to Tulsa.

“When we went away it just the parents and the coaches,” Judge said. “Here we have a lot of people cheering them on and coming to see them play. It’s different pressure now, they’re home, their known and people want to see them and these other teams want to beat them.”

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11-year-old Section III Championship Game
East Greenbush-Castleton 1, Colonie 0: Jared Fortin pitched a no-hitter in a complete game shutout for East Greenbush-Castleton, as they defeated the Colonie "Wrecking Crew" in the Section III 11-year-old championship game at Twin Town.
Anthony Butler’s home run in the fifth inning was the only run needed by East Greenbush, which advances to the state tournament against the other five Section champions this weekend in Oswego.

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Albany's Kimdo Bethel (right) will make his professional boxing debut Frioday night at Joe Bruno Stadium in Troy. He'll fight Cleveland, Ohio native James Rankin (left). (Photo by J.S. Carras - The Record).

They call Bethel the 'X-Factor' - for more on that, pick up Friday's edition of The Record, and he went 82-6 in his amateur career, which included a spot as an alternate on the 2008 US Olympic team.

"I did everything in the amateurs that I wanted to do," Bethel said. "So now I’m going to try to do the same thing I did in the amateurs in the pro ranks and try to work my way to the top. I want to fight the top fighters and start making history."

Battle at Troy
Friday, Joseph L. Bruno Stadium

Doors open at 6 p.m.
Fights begin at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets - $30, 40, 50

Blue Corner Red Corner

Super Middleweight–Four Rounds
Donyell Dukes (0-5-0) vs. Tony Brinson (pro debut)

Lightweight-Four Rounds
Laquan Lewis (0-2-0) vs. Zach Smith (2-0-0)

Lightweight-Six Rounds
Bryan Abraham (1-2-1) vs. Broderick Antoine (5-8-1, 4KOs)

Intermission

Heavyweight-Four Rounds
James Rankin (0-2-1) vs. Kimdo Bethel (pro debut)

Super Middleweight-Six Rounds
Markus Williams (2-0-0, 1KO) vs. Nick Brinson (3-0-0, 2KOs)

New York State Welterweight Title Bout-Ten Rounds
Frank Houghtaling (19-16-4, 4KOs) vs. Danny Sostre (9-3-0, 3KOs)