Sports

Connecticut got a chip shot 40 seconds into the championship game in Portland, Maine, this afternoon and the Batavia Ramparts spent nearly all of three periods chasing the lead.

The Ramparts lost 3-0.

Goal two for Connecticut was a rebound off the goalie, said coach John Zola.

Goal three came on an empty net play at the end of the game.

"Everyone played their heart out," Zola said. "Both teams played very, very hard."

The coach said he doesn't believe a Batavia team has ever advanced as far as the Ramparts did this season. At the age level of the Ramparts, the northeast regional championship would have been as far as they could have advanced.

Shawn Beachy and Ken Beachy led the Beachy Cabinet Maker Wild to a 3-1 championship win over Genesee Orthopedic Blues on Sunday morning.

Both Beachys scored goals, with Shawn picking up two assists and his father Ken getting one.

Ryan DiFilippo also scored for the wild.

The Wild's third goal came with less than a minute into the game when the Blues emptied their goal to put an extra offensive player on the ice.

Dave Holtz, with no assist, scored the Blues only goal.

Blues goalie Jason Molino faced 27 shots and Wild goalie Scott Fauth faced 32.

Molino was named the game's 3rd star, Fauth, 2nd star and Ken Beachy was named MVP.

In the consolation game, Batavia Legal Printing Sharks beat the
Kelly's Holland Inn Stars 7-5.

For the Sharks, Jeff Reuter and Dan Hudson each scored three goals  
and Andy Pfalzer had one.

For the Stars, Nick Bush, Dave Bogue, T.J. Peca, Nick Martell and Cal Rice scored one goal each.

Top photo, Ken Beachy hoists the championship trophy. Third photo, Wild goalie Scott Fauth snags a shot. Bottom photo, Ken and Shawn Beachy.

There are 21 photos with this post and an additional 40 or so available for purchase on our photo purchase page. BUY PHOTOS

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After a big 6-0 win in their semifinal playoff game against the number one Massachusetts, the Batavia Ramparts will play for the northeast championship at 3:30 p.m.

The games are being played in Portland, Maine.

The Ramparts didn't score their first goal until the second period on a power play, with Cam Chamberlain making the shot with an assist from Richie Francis.

Mason Versage scored next on a power play with an assist from Chris Walker.

In the third period, Francis scored with assists from Kris Bank and John Sallome.

Point four came on a power-play goal by Joey Saraceni with assists from Versage and Francis.

Versage notched his second goal with assists from Francis and Bank.

The final goal was put in the net by Bank unassisted.

That was Bank's second goal of the year. Overall, Bank, a defensive player, was involved in three points in the game.

The Batavia Ramparts won two games in Portland, Maine, today and will play a semi-final game Sunday in a northeast regional hockey tournament.

If the Ramparts can win Sunday morning, they will play a regional championship game in the afternoon.

The Ramparts beat the Massachusetts team 8-0 on Saturday morning and beat New Hampshire 2-1 in afternoon play.

In game one, Joey Saraceni scored twice as did Will VanAuken. VanAuken had two assists and Saraceni. 

Also scoring were Zack Laird, Richie Francis, Sean Olin, Jack Simpson. Olin, and goalie Tyler Stroud each had an assist.

The Ramparts out shot their opponents 28-18.

In game two, Mason Versage scored first with an assist from Francis, who also knocked in the game-winning goal with an assist from Zach Laird.

The Batavia Ramparts won their first round game this afternoon against the host Maine Huskies in a championship tournament under way at the University of Southern Maine in Portland.

The Ramparts, who out shot the Huskies 30-9, won 4-2.

The Huskies scored a late goal, according to John Zola.

Richie Francis notched a hat trick and Joey Saraceni added another goal and had an assist. Will VanAuken had two assists.

Tomorrow, the Ramparts play two games -- one each against the teams for Massachusetts and New Hampshire. If they make it into the top two seeds of their bracket, they'll play a semi-final game Sunday morning. The championship game is Sunday afternoon.

Sunday morning, four teams from Batavia's Adult Hockey League met in two playoff games.

The Beachy Cabinet Maker "Wild" and The Genesee Orthopaedic "Blues" won their games and will now face each other for the league championship this Sunday.

Below are details of the games provided by Charles Mahler.

7 a.m.: The Beachy Cabinet Maker "Wild" vs. The Kelly Holland Inn "Stars." The Wild defeats the Stars 9-3 with the winner advancing to the championship game.

Scoring for the Wild: Todd Meier 3 goals and Rich Baskin 3 goals (w/ the game winner), Shawn Beachy, Tom Antinore and Ryan Diflippo each 1 goal. Assists: Rich Pearson with 2, while 1 each to Todd Meier, Tom Antinore, Shawn Beachy and Ryan Diflippo. Scott Fauth was in net facing 28 shots

Scoring for the Stars: Adam Luckenbach, Nick Martell and TJ Peca.     Assists: Nick Busch with 3, TJ Peca, Rick Piazza and Nick Martell with 1 each. John Grande was in net facing 27 shots

9 a.m.: The Genesee Orthopaedic "Blues" vs. The Batavia Legal Printing "Sharks." The Blues defeats the Sharks 6-3 advancing to the championship game.

Scoring for the Blues: Shawnee Oberholtzer with 2, Bill Kusmierski, Cory Stearns, Dave Holtz and Joe Mahler each having 1 goal with Mahler's being the game winner. Assists: Brian Schrader with 2, Greg Ames, Kevin Hamilton and Joe Mahler with 1 each. Jason Molino faced 24 shots in the win.

Scoring for the Sharks: Dan Reuter had a natural hat trick with 3 goals and the only assist going to Andy Pfalzer. Bill Hertel faced 25 shots in net.

Sunday March 20th at 7:30 a.m. will be the "Consolation Game" with the Sharks going against the Stars. At 9 a.m. the "Championship Game" with the Blues taking on the Wild.

Then on Sunday March 27 at 8 a.m. the "B-Line" All Star Game. Followed at 9:30 a.m. by the "A-Line" All-Star Game.

There are another 30 pictures, plus these, on our photo sales site. Click here.

Despite blowing a cylinder today, Stafford's Jason DiSalvo managed to pull of a victory in one of motorcycle racing's most prestigious events, the Daytona 200.

AMAProRacing.com describes the race as challenging for all of the riders with multiple lead changes.

DiSalvo was in and out of the lead several times during the race.

“It’s really unbelievable after what the team went through today with everything with the engine. Those guys worked so hard, it was probably the biggest thrash in all of motorcycling history to get that bike put back together and ready to rock in time for the start. It’s just amazing. I’m almost a little bit speechless. As to how I feel about winning this race, I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. I have to thank a couple of people, one is the AMA Pro officials for letting us restart the race. I know there was some question about it, and then we were given the go-ahead, so I want to thank them for that, and then of course my crew. It’s just unbelievable—I watched that bike go back together in 20 minutes.”

Full Story.

Submitted by Pam Zola:

March 4 – 6, 2011 wasn’t an ordinary weekend for the Batavia Ramparts Bantam III team. Vying for a state title, the team traveled to the Onondaga Indian Reservation to play in the 2011 NYSAHA Championships. The team was led by Coach Duane Olin and Assistant Coaches John Zola and Jeff Bower and is sponsored by T. F. Brown’s.

In their first game during round robin play the team faced the Great Neck Bruins, the second seed out of the East. Winning with a score of 10 – 2, Batavia never looked back. Led by Captains Richard Francis and Sean Olin and Assistants Joe Saraceni and Will VanAuken, the team faced the number-one seed out of the North, The Norfolk-Norwood Icemen. 

Zachary Laird, John Sallome, Jake Bower, Tyler Andrews and Cameron Chamberlain as well as Goalie Tyler Stroud proved instrumental in the 6-2 win. The Cortland Flames faced Batavia in the last round robin game.  Playing well for the Ramparts were Jack Simpson, Tristan Aldinger and Julien Schimley as well as Kris Bank and Josh Preston. 

The 4 – 2 win propelled the Ramparts into the crossover game where they faced Canandaigua. Mason Versage, Kris Walker, Francis, Saraceni, Sallome and Laird led the team to the 6 – 1 win and put Batavia in the finals to once again face the Norfolk-Norwood Icemen.

With a 9 – 2 victory, the Batavia Ramparts Bantam III team won the State Championship – the first in 12 years for the organization. The team will travel to Portland, Maine March 18 – 20 for the Regional Tournament.

Scoring droughts in the second and fourth quarters proved the Lady Lancers' undoing Monday night in Letchworth as Elba dropped a western regional playoff game to Whitesville, 50-40.

Elba jumped out to an early lead and played with confidence in the first quarter, but by the half -- after scoring only one basket in the first half of the second quarter -- was down 17-29.

With a fast start in the third quarter, Elba managed to briefly tie the game and ended the third down by one, 34-35.

Using a combination of fast breaks and defensive control of the boards, Whiteville (20-3) dominated the fourth quarter, however, to end Elba's season at 19-4.

Jamie Marshall had 8 points, Meg Stucko 8, McKenzie Bezon 7, and Marissa Pangrazio 6.

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Baseball, believe it or not, is just around the corner, and right on schedule, the booster club for the Batavia Muckdogs hosted its annual hot stove dinner and auction at the Batavia Party House.

More than 200 people were on hand for dinner and both a silent auction and a live auction with auctioneer Todd Jantzi of Bontrager's (below).

The booster club presented a donation to the Michael Napoleone Foundation. Above, accepting the check from Shirley Fanara, right, are Laurie Napoleone, center, and Ann Marie Suttell, president of the foundation.

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Travis Sick, Muckdogs general manager.

Brian Paris, president of the ownership group.

The local sports world and many members of the Genesee County community mourn today after hearing of the unexpected passing of popular sportswriter, Brian Hillabush.

Hillabush, who spent nearly a decade at Batavia Daily News and some time at The Batavian, was found dead in his home Wednesday evening. No cause of death has been determined.

"I'm very shocked to hear about Brian and we will all certainly miss him," says Batavia Daily News managing editor Mark Graczyk. "He did great job as sports writer here. He always cared about people that he covered and will be missed by the people in the community.

"Brian loved and lived for sports, with his favorite teams being Duke, Yankees, and the Colts," said his girlfriend Aline Alibe Santos. "He loved his nephews and his family and had future plans to get married."

Hillabush had been attending Genesee Community College and was majoring in travel and tourism. 

"He was an energetic, well-liked student. You could tell from his days at the paper that he was interested in learning about the facts and finding out as much as he could about topics he liked." says GCC instructor Amy Slusser. "He took interest in local geography and hometown destinations and wanted to promote Batavia as a tourism destination."

Hillabush was well known for spending hours each week at sporting events and had a strong following in high school sports.

"He was very good at his job," says Batavia hockey coach Paul Pedersen. "He went the extra mile to cover the high school sports and was very passionate about the ones in the area, being that he was a local kid himself.

"He would go every day, game to game, and that was his life. It was awesome and the articles showed the time he put into each one of them. (Our) team went to states in 2002-2003 and he followed us to all the games that were way out of town. Him and (Mark) Gutman were stapled to us. Not every reporter does that. It was nice and made the kids feel special."

"Brian was passionate about how he represented, reported and worked with the local sports," stated Notre Dame Football coach and longtime friend Rick Mancuso. "He loved the kids he interacted with and he loved what he did.

"His passion was what set him apart from other people. He really was an advocate for high school sports.He worked very hard in everything he did and had a vision for how high school reporting should be."

Brian's work was appreciated by many and he was one of the few reporters that went out of his way to cover cheerleading as well.

"The first person to always cover our acomplishments was Brian," says former Batavia cheerleading captain Jamie Turman. "As a cheerleader it wasn't often that you would be in the limelight, but Brian always made our winnings known to our community.

"He understood that even though we were cheerleaders, we were proud of what we had done and what we had acomplished. He was amazing in the sense that he made all althelets feel great about what they had done no matter how big or small. He even took the time to talk to us and to learn about cheerleading to try and put himself in our shoes."

Hillabush's vision for high school sports started with a focus on the Genesee Region but quickly expanded to all of Section V. He played a major role in the lauch of SectionVTalksback.com, which is an online high school sports forum that allows athletes from all over the section to interact and chat about their sports.

"He had a great vision in kicking off probably one of the most succesful high school sports sites that exists in SectionVTalksback. He really did a great job at what he did. He will be missed by many," added Mancuso.

Friends may call on Sunday from 3 to 6 p.m. at H.E. Turner & Co. Funeral Home, 403 E. Main St., Batavia, where services will follow at 6 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the family. Burial will be in Grand View Cemetery, Batavia.

Brian Hillabush, who spent nearly a decade at  Batavia Daily News building a reputation as a solid sportswriter who cared about the players he covered, was found dead at his home in Batavia this evening.

He was 33.

No cause of death has been determined, according to Sgt. John Peck of the Batavia Police Department.

The coroner referred the case to the Monroe County Medical Examiner for an autopsy.

There was no evidence of foul play nor anything suspecious about his death, Peck said.

Hillabush joined the staff of The Batavian in September 2008 and was sports editor until February 2009 when the original owner of The Batavian, GateHouse Media, ended its association with the site and laid off Hillabush.

Brian had been attending Genesee Community College.

In the past hour or so dozens of messages of condolence have appeared on the wall of Hilly's Facebook page.

For the second time this year, hockey fans filled the Falleti Ice Arena for the cross-town matchup between the Ice Devils and the Fighting Irish. The Devils were out for revenge after losing the first matchup and succeeded, upsetting the Irish 4-2.

"It felt great to beat a really good team going into sectional play," said Batavia senior captain Tim Finnell. "Now we have momentum to build off of."

The Irish got on the board first as Tyler Kessler set up Brett Perfitt in front of the net, where he put the puck past Batavia goaltender Adam Kurek.

Freshman Rich Francis then put Batavia on the board to even the game at 1-1. Joe Saraceni was credited with the assist.

Conor Holvey beat ND goalie Tom Dehr for his first of two goals to give Batavia the lead off an assist from Trevor Powers.

Zach Blew and Dylan Versage set up Josh Johnson to tie the game for the second time at two goals each to end the 2nd period.

Heading into the 3rd period tied 2-2 was a familiar scenario for both teams. Last time the two teams faced off it was the same situation, and Notre Dame made the most of the 3rd period by scoring 4 goals to win 6-2.

"Last game we got too hyped up going into the 3rd and we came out flat. When a couple bounces went their way we started to hang our heads because things weren't going our way," says Batavia forward Josh Marr. "This time we stayed calm and knew what had to be done in order to win this game...we had no room to take any shifts off."

Finnell led Batavia into the final period as Holvey and Trevor Schimley set him up to beat Dehr right side.

Holvey sealed the win for the Ice Devils, netting an empty net goal as the buzzer sounded to end the score 4-2.

Both Kurek and Dehr made 17 saves for their respective teams.

For the second time this season, the Lady Lancers came up just points short against Notre Dame, dropping an emotional rematch in Elba, 43-40.

Notre Dame remains undefeated at 15-0 and Elba drops to 12-3.

The Lady Irish were led by Liz Geandreau, who scored 15 points with seven rebounds, and Riley Norton, 11 points and seven rebounds.

For Elba, Meg Stucko had 14 points and 16 rebounds and Racheal Cook scored 12 points.

To purchase pictures from this game (site template a little messed up right now, but site otherwise working) click here.

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GCC's head baseball coach, Skip Sherman, right, is excited about two players who will be joining his squad.

Adam Pratt, above with his parents, signed a letter of intent to play for GCC and is receiving a two-year scholarship to play for the Cougers. Entering his senior season at Batavia High School, the southpaw has a 3.06 ERA with 106 Ks in 66 1/3 innings with a record of 6-4. He was the Rotary Tournament MVP last season.

Says Sherman:

Left-handed pitcher. I have been watching Adam for a couple of years now and we are very excited to have him join our program. He will be expected to help lead our pitching staff and will be tested very early to see if he is ready to pitch at a high level. He has great composure on the mound and was asked to pitch in some big games as a junior. I am expecting him to have a big senior year for Batavia High School and I am looking forward to working with him at Genesee next year.

Also signing on with the squad is Ken Urbanik of Lyndonville.

Sherman:

Kenny is a very versatile player and is an extremely hard worker. He will do very well in our program because of his work ethic. Right now he is projected to play a corner in the outfield and we are excited about having a player of his size, with his speed, in our program. He is the type of player that always succeeds in our program and it will be very interesting to see what happens after a couple of years in our program.