Residents and veterans of Bergen held a parade and ceremony today honoring local fallen heroes.

Photos by Nicholas Serrata.

Residents and veterans in Le Roy honored fallen heroes today with a parade down Main Street and a ceremony in Trigon Park at the Soldiers Memorial.

Photos by Nicholas Serrata.

Veterans gathered outside the V.A. Medical Center to honor the nation's fallen for Memorial Day.

To view or purchase photos, click here.

Photos by Steve Ognibene

The County's war dead, along with local veterans who served during past conflicts and died during the past year, were honored in a ceremony today at the War Memorial at St. Jerome's, located at Bank and Washington in Batavia. For each service member who passed away in the previous year, a flag was placed at the base of the War Memorial.

Photos by Howard Owens.

Batavia's annual Memorial Day Parade followed its traditional route down Main Street from Eastown Plaza to Bank Street this morning.

To view or purchase photos, click here.

Photos by Steve Ognibene

Perhaps the most bizarre ending to a game in organized baseball history occurred on Saturday at Dwyer Stadium in Batavia, and the video made ESPN and has gone viral online.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Hornell was up 5-4 and with Brady Prebalick at the plate and two runners on base, Hornell gets a called third strike, but the ball is in the dirt. The catcher appears to miss the tag attempt on the hitter as he starts to run to first but thinks he got the out. The umpire signals safe.  The catcher sticks the ball in his back pocket, and the Hornell team starts celebrating an apparent championship win. 

The Pal-Mac runners on first and second race around the bases. The only Hornell player, at first, who realizes the game isn't over is the second baseman, who rushes toward the plate, yelling and looking for the ball.  

Both runners score. Pal-Mac wins 6-5 to take the Class B1 crown.

Hornell's coach Joe Flint told the Wellsville Sun, "I blame myself a little; maybe I could have gone out and argued it was a dead ball and kept the runner on third and said, ‘Hey, it’s tied now, put the runner on third and make them beat us.’ But we can’t blame the umpires; everyone is running on the field, and I’m not sure they knew how to handle it either. I’m not sure what else happened because I haven’t watched the video. Maybe I should have called for a conference and protested. I blame myself on that piece of it, maybe I could have done a better job.”

UPDATE: H/T Steve Ognibene for finding this explainer video. 

Various veteran organizations in Genesee County honoring the 35 Batavians at the W.W.I. memorial in Williams Park this morning.  More continued coverage throughout the day honoring fallen soldiers on Memorial Day.

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Photos by Steve Ognibene

Members of the VFW Chapter 1602, American Legion 332 and Glenn S. Loomis VVA 193, met this morning at Genesee County Park to honor Vietnam Veterans on Memorial Day.  The guest speaker was Dan Burling, VFW post surgeon, Alexander VFW 6239.

To view or purchase photos, click here.

Photos by Steve Ognibene

Area veterans gathered at the Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines Monument, also known as the Upton Monument, in Batavia this morning for a placing of a wreath on the monument in honor of Genesee County's war dead.

It is one of several Memorial Day services today.  The Batavian will have more coverage of the various parades and ceremonies.

Photos by Howard Owens

Residents from throughout Western New York gathered in Pembroke on Sunday to honor the nation's fallen heroes in a ceremony at the WNY National Cemetery.

Photos by Nicholas Serrata 

The Memorial Day parade in Batavia is set to begin at 9:30 a.m. Monday, beginning at East Town Plaza. A previous time of 9:45 a.m was provided to The Batavian, and City Councilman Bob Bialkowski wants to make sure that anyone intending to participate in the parade should show up at 9:30 a.m. This is to ensure that it doesn't conflict with other ceremonies scheduled that day.

The parade is to travel west along Main Street and end at Alva Place.

The Oakfield-Alabama/Elba Boys Track team picked up a sectional title in Class B3.

OAE scored 186 points, well ahead of second-place Rochester Academy Charter, with 72 points.

In the Girls Track, Class B3, Alexander scored 90 points, giving them second place behind Geneseo with 115 points.

For full results and individual results, click here.

Photos by Kristin Smith. For more, click here.

On Friday evening, in a less than 24-hour change of locations for the Class B1 outdoor track sectional competition, the Batavia Girls finished first place by a large margin, with 172 points.  

Batavia Boys were edged by U-Prep by 2.5 points in the last race to take second place. 

The event was moved at the last minute to Van Detta Stadium because of a fire at the Newark High School facility, the originally scheduled host of the event. There was an electrical fire late Thursday afternoon in Newark.

Girls head coach Rich Boyce said, "I am extremely proud of this accomplishment tonight. The girls worked really hard all season. We knew we would have to have the best meet of our lives to beat HFL, and they came here today, and every single girl on this team got a PR in every event they did."

"We knew it would come down to us and HFL," Boyce said. "172 points today was just amazing by our team, which to my recollection, is the most points Batavia girls outdoor track team have scored in a sectional meet.  We will celebrate this one tonight and be back to work for state qualifiers next week."

Assistant Coach Bill Buckenmeyer said, "It was an outstanding effort to a change in scenery in one day and come out on their home track and put out the performance that they did. I thought it was amazing. The boys had a great meet, too. It just shows the true meaning of being a Blue Devil to go out there, up against tough competition and perform at the highest level."

Winners for Batavia include Nate Canale in the 1600m (4:29.44) and in the 800m (1:59.41). Cody Harloff won the 3000 Steeple (10:21.67), and the boy's 4x800 Relay squad won (9:06.29).  

Relay runners for the winning 4x8 were Noah Pickard, Gavin Fowler, Donavin Solis, and Ryan Dillon.  

Sheldon Siverling continued his impressive spring with a victory in the Shot Put (54-3) and a 2nd place finish in Discus (136-3).  Lucas Crater won the individual sectional championship in the Pentathlon (2578 points) as well.  

The team finished with 142.5 points, while Uprep scored 145.  

"This meet was a very gutsy performance from many of our athletes, and the Blue Devils competed hard all meet long," said Boys Coach Nick Burk. "The meet was hosted by Batavia, so all of our seniors got to have one more chance to run on the home track against the top competition.  We also had a very balanced meet, getting contributions in many events throughout the course of the day.  Despite the bittersweet ending to sectionals, our athletes left it all on the track and competed until the end."

Full results can be found at: https://live.yentiming.com/meets/781/events

Batavia will host the State Qualifier meet this Friday at Vandetta Stadium at 4:45 p.m.

To view or purchase prints, click here.

Photos by Steve Ognibene

Saturday was quite the sports day for Notre Dame High School with both the baseball and softball teams winning championships.

When the teams returned to Batavia, they were met in the Eastown parking lot by Batavia PD patrols and a City Fire truck and given a championship escort through Downtown.

Photos by Howard Owens.

See also:

• Berry tosses shutout for Notre Dame in Class C2 title game
• Notre Dame takes D1 softball championship with win over Lyndonville

Notre Dame used a balanced offensive attack, flawless defense and, as always, solid pitching to pull out the 5-2 win in the Class D1 Sectional finals over Lyndonville on Saturday afternoon in Fillmore.  

Notre Dame scored runs in the second, third, five, sixth and seventh innings and stopped a late rally by Lyndonville in which the Lady Tigers scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh.  

Starter Loretta Sorochty fanned the last two Tigers to preserve the win. She was named MVP of the tournament.

Sorochty pitched a complete game for the Lady Irish, going seven innings, giving up five hits, two runs and had 11 strikeouts.  

Lyndonville pitcher Shaffer gave up 11 hits, five runs and had six strikeouts.

Leading the way offensively for ND were Sorochty, Mia Treleaven, Sonji Warner and Anna Panepento, who each had two hits.  Sorochty had a double, single, a run scored and an RBI. Treleaven had two singles and an RBI. Warner had two singles, and Panepento had two singles and an RBI.  Katie Landers added a base hit, scored a run and was hit by a pitch twice. Cayleigh Havens had a base hit, and Kaydence Stehlar had a hit and a run scored.

Notre Dame now moves on to face the D2 champion Tuesday night in Fillmore.

"I couldn't be more proud of these ladies," said Coach Otis Thomas. "Between the fall league at MCC, the winter workouts and all the practices we had this spring, it is nice to see their hard work pay off.  This a special group that plays for each other and I hope we can keep this momentum going a little longer and see how far we can go."

Submitted game story:

Bryceton Berry threw a gem on Saturday for the Notre Dame allowing no runs helping the Fighting Irish  beat the Bolivar-Richburg Wolverines 3-0

Berry struck out 15, walked four, and scattered five hits over seven innings.  

The Notre Dame defense behind Berry did not commit a single error.

Landon Barkley took the loss for the Bolivar Richburg Wolverines. The hurler allowed five hits and three runs over three and a third innings, striking out three.  

In a scoreless game in the bottom of the third, Jimmy Fanara, the leadoff hitter for the inning, was hit by a pitch.  He advanced to second on a Jay Antinore single and then to third when Berry grounded into a fielder's choice. Ryan Fitzpatrick grounded out to third, scoring Fanara for the game's first run.  Jaden Sherwood would follow with an RBI double.  

The Irish scored again in the fourth.  Jordan Welker reached on a fielder's choice, and proceed to steal second and third.  On his steal of third, the catcher's throw went wide of the base allowing Welker to score the game's third and final run.  

Notre Dame Batavia will now face C1 champion Sodus on Tuesday, May 30, at Canandaigua Academy High School at 5 p.m. for the right to represent Section V in the far west regional against Gownada next Saturday.

Photos by Pete Welker.

Tomorrow, Memorial Day, is the day our nation honors the men and women who sacrificed their lives to help secure and protect our rights to individual liberty, to hold our own beliefs and define our own lives.

Here's a reminder of ceremonies and events taking place in Genesee County for Memorial Day:

• 7 a.m. – Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Genesee County Park, sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 193.
• 8 a.m. – Williams Park (Batavia) W.W.I Memorial. This memorial honors the 35 Batavians who gave their lives in WORLD WAR I.
• 8:30 a.m. - Batavia VA, at the main flagpole, sponsored by the VAMC.
• 8:45 a.m. (approx.) - NYS Veterans Home, at the main flagpole, sponsored by the NYS Veterans Home.
• 9:30 a.m. – Veterans Plot on Harvester Avenue. This memorial honors all war dead of all wars in Elmwood and St. Joseph’s Cemeteries.
• 10 a.m. - Upton Monument. This monument honors the dead of the Civil War, and all wars since.
• 10:30 a.m. – UMMC Jerome Center. This is the site of the Genesee County War Memorial, honoring all war dead from Genesee County.

Town ceremonies and parades:

• ALEXANDER: Ceremony to take place at the Alexander Village Cemetery (a.k.a. Railroad Avenue Cemetery) at 11 a.m.
• BATAVIA:  Parade starts at 9:30 a.m., beginning at the East Town Plaza, traveling west along Main Street and ending at Alva Place.
• BERGEN:  Ceremony to take place at Hickory Park at 9:30 a.m.
• BYRON:  Ceremony to take place at Byron Cemetery at 11 a.m.
• CORFU:  Parade at 12 p.m. from Corfu Fire Hall on Route 33 to the Intermediate School on Route 77.  Ceremony immediately following the parade.
• ELBA:  Ceremony at Maple Lawn Cemetery at 10 a.m.
• LEROY:  Parade at 10:30 a.m. from the American Legion to Trigon Park with a ceremony at Trigon Park at 11 a.m. immediately following the parade.

A car has struck a bridge on Vallance Road at the Thruway overpass in Le Roy.

Unknown injuries.

Le Roy Fire and Le Roy Ambulance dispatched.

UPDATE 10:51 a.m.: Minor injuries. No need for fire service. Fire department is back in service.

It was a sunny, windless morning when Jason Smith took his morning run through DeWitt Recreation Area, and he captured this photo of a glassy lake in the park.