Sports

They could call the team the Albany ValleyCats, but that's not a popular city in New York these days. Instead, they're the Tri-City ValleyCats, and that's who the Batavia Muckdogs will play in the first round of the NY-Penn League playoffs.

Tuesday's first game is in the ValleyCat's home park, which is on a college campus in Troy.

Games two and three (if a third is necessary) are at Dwyer Stadium. Both games are scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Tri-City finished the regular season with a record of 38-36 to win the Stedler Division. The Muckdogs took the Pinckney Division crown with a record of 45-29. Brooklyn comes into the playoffs with the most wins in the season with 51. The Jamestown Jammers grab the wild card spot with a record of 43-32.

The Muckdogs will come into the game fresh off a win against Auburn, beating the Doubledays 7-0 in a Sunday afternoon match-up.

Starter Nick McCully (pictured, file photo), pitched six scoreless innings, giving up six hits to move his record to 4-2.

Matt Valaika and Jon Edwards each had two RBIs on two hits. Audry Perez, Joey Bergman and Pat Biserta also had two hit games.

Nick Longmire finished the season in the top 10 in seven offensive categories: Second in runs scored with 53; seventh in hits with 76; sixth in triples with 7; fifth in homers with 9; third in RBIs with 55; fifth in total bases with 128; and eighth in slugging percentage at .483.

Jon Rodriguez finished: third in homers with 12; 10th in RBIs with 40; sixth in total bases with 122; and seventh in slugging percentage at .500.

Audry Perez finished seventh in RBIs with 47.

Victor Sanchez finished sixth in doubles with 19.

Joey Bergman finished eighth in on-base percentage at .400.

In pitching, Zach Russell had the ninth best ERA at 2.93.

Jose Rada, who was called up earlier in the season, had 10 saves while in Batavia, which was the sixth best in the league.

Justin Edwards (77 1/3) and Andrew Moss (75 1/2) were seventh and eighth, respectively, in innings pitched. Also, Edwards was fourth in strike-outs with 66, and Moss was eighth with 61.

Moss's eight wins were tied for second in the league.

About 100 people participated today in the Batavia Area Jaycees 5K Run and Walk, which started and finished at MacArthur Park, taking runners down Bank, to Washington, to Ellicott Avenue and back via State Street.

It took Norte Dame two quarters to get its running game untracked in its season opener against Attica, but once the Irish were putting positive yardage on the board, a ball control game led to a 7-0 victory.

Mike Pratt punched the ball into the end zone with seconds left in the third quarter.

In all, Norte Dame had its offensive squad on the field for 27 minutes.

Pratt gained 70 yards on 18 carries. Bo Richter had 8 1/2 tackles, including 3 1/4 for a loss.

Pratt also blocked a field goal attempt (pictured above).

More pictures after the jump:

Coming off a 1-7 season, the Batavia Blue Devils found themselves in a rather unfortunate situation for their 2010 home opener: Facing off against state champions, Hornell.

The score was as lopsided as you might expect, with the Blue Devils getting swamped 49-7, but for a time in the first half, it looked like Batavia High might actually make a game of it.

"I thought we came out good there early on," said Head Coach Dan Geiger. "We found a way to move the ball. Hornell’s definitely a tough team, but early in the game, we put them on a longer field. Later in the game, they were on a short field. They’re not a team you can keep on a short field. They’re a strong, physical team."

Hornell struck first and even though the Blue Devils tide the score on its next possession with a 66-yard TD pass from Aaron Gugel to Justin Washington, the game quickly slipped away from Batavia.

By the start of the second half, it was clear Batavia was not likely to make a miraculous come back.

Ryan Pyatt had five carries for 28 yards to lead the ground game.

Spencer Stresing led the defense with seven tackles and was a real presence defensively throughout the game.

"Hornell’s a great team, but we hurt ourselves more in that we didn’t play assignment football," Geiger said. "Our kids realize that. At the end of the game they were talking about, ‘our assignments weren’t perfect enough.' Against a great opponent, and Hornell is a great opponent, you’ve got to be perfect."

In other Genesee County football action Friday: Holly beat Oakfield-Alabama 52-0 and Le Roy beat Livonia 16-8.

Note: I took still photos during most of the first half, and then switched to video once the sun went down. Hopefully, I can get the video edited, processed and posted before I need to head out for more coverage.

More pictures after the jump:

Florida native Joey Bergman has made quite a showing in his first year of pro ball, hitting .302, scoring 35 times, driving in 31 runs and drawing 30 walks. But Friday night he achieved a special milestone -- hitting his first professional home run.

The blast in the fifth inning was part of a Muckdog onslaught against Auburn that lifted the division champs to a 8-5 victory.

Chris Edmundson also homered -- his second of the year. Edmundson's three-run shot was part of a five-run third inning for the Batavia.

Burgman had three hits and Edmundson two.

Starter Zach Russell went five innings and gave up three runs -- all in the first -- to get the win and move his record to 3-3 with a 2.93 ERA.

Batavia is in Auburn on Saturday and closes out the regular season at 1:05, Sunday, against Auburn. The playoffs open on Tuesday, but Batavia's first opponent and the location of the game have not yet been announced.

Photo: File photo.

The last in our series of Muckdogs player interviews. 

Sorry about the poor audio quality in the last two questions. The rest of the interview had to be cut out because of it. 

The Jamestown Jammers managed to get to starting pitcher Justin Edwards (4-5, 3.38 ERA) for five runs in the fourth and fifth innings, giving them all the runs they needed to defeat the Batavia Muckdogs.

The Jammers (40-32) are still in a wild card playoff hunt with Williamsport (41-32), while the Muckdogs are cruising into the playoffs as Pinckney Division champions.

The Muckdogs scored early, taking a 2-0 lead following a Victor Sanchez double, and hits from Jon Rodriguez and Joey Bergman.

The Muckdogs would score again in the fourth and fifth innings, but still come up short, 5-4.

Muckdogs coach Oliver Marmol was ejected in the fifth inning along with Manager Dann Bilardello. Marmol and Bilardello argued a foul ball call, which may have cost the Muckdogs a run. Shortstop Yunier Castillo hit the called foul, and later grounded out, and he apparently mouthed off himself and got tossed.

Rodriguez had three hits, knocked in two and scored twice.

Batavia is at home tonight against Auburn, in Auburn tomorrow and finish out the regular season Sunday at 1:05 p.m. against Auburn.

The playoffs start Tuesday at a location to be determined.

More pictures after the jump:

The Muckdogs need to make money and draw more fans, according to NY-Penn League Commissioner Ben Hayes, but even that might not be enough to keep the team in the city of the NYPL's birth.

Hayes said Dwyer Stadium is one of three or four ballparks in the league that is not up to professional baseball standards.

"It's not that I want them to relocate," Hayes said while visiting Dwyer for Thursday's game. "It's not something I want to happen. But it is something that, if the market is not supporting the ball club, or you have a stadium that’s not in condition for professional baseball, either one of those can end a franchise, and that’s where we are."

The infield is a particular concern, Hayes said. He said he's heard, but doesn't know about firsthand, that one team that visited Dwyer this year refused to take infield practice  because the manager was concerned about the condition of the playing surface.

Minutes earlier Hayes spoke with the groundskeeper. Hayes said the groundskeeper told him the field needed to be bulldozed.

"The infield needs to be laser leveled," Hayes said. "Those things are very costly."

The local ownership group is nonprofit, Hayes noted, and doesn't have the resources to take on those kinds of improvements.

The commissioner pointed to Aberdeen, State College, Staten Island and Brooklyn as franchises with professional quality facilities. He singled out Vermont as a club that, while profitable, will need to relocate if it can't solve its ballpark problems.

Hayes agreed that it would be a shame if one of the last original franchises had to relocate.

"We considered that three years ago," Hayes said. "That was one of the top things on our minds. It's one of the last original, founding clubs in the New York-Penn League.

Unfortunately," he added, "it’s a situation where I’m not sure this club can make money. It’s losing money every year and if that’s the case, then, you know, like the other original members, those clubs will have to depart and go somewhere else."

UPDATE, Friday, 9:22 p.m.: Groundskeeper Donald Rock called to clarify -- he's concerned that some might read his comments as meaning that the whole stadium needs to be leveled. That's not what he said. He said Hayes came to him before the game and asked, "If you could do one thing, what would it be?" and he replied bulldoze the field (both infield and outfield) and level it. Rock said years of football play on the field has left it uneven. He said Hayes told him he does a great job with the field and it's in the best condition it can be under the circumstances. He said Hayes said, "The things that need to be repaired, you can't do yourself."

The Batavia Muckdogs are playoff bound, and not as just some wild card hopeful, but as certified champs.

Tonight in Jamestown, the Muckdogs recorded their sixth-straight win to capture the Pinckney Division crown.

The team in the smallest city in the league now has a shot at its second league championship in three years.

Andrew Moss turned in another strong outing and Jon Rodriguez homered twice, giving him 11 on the season, as the Muckdogs beat the Jammers, 10-5.

Moss went six-and-a-third innings giving up four runs, but only one was earned. Anthony Ferrara came on to record his second save.

The Muckdogs now lead Williamsport by four games and Jamestown by 4.5 in the Pinckney Division.

Rodriquez went  2-5 with two solo home runs. Nick Longmire had two hits and three RBIs. Chris Edmundson continued his hot hitting at the top of the order, with two hits and three runs scored. Yuner Castillo also had two hits.

The division champs return home Thursday night to face the Jammers again, and then play Friday at Dwyer (fireworks!) against Auburn. 

The Muckdogs have three more regular season home games, and one more on the road.

The reason it's so short is that the second half of the interview had to be left out because of poor sound quality. 

In a wild one last night, the Batavia Muckdogs won the team's fifth-straight game and extended its three-game lead over second place Williamsport by beating State College 12-11.

Batavia and the Spikes took a 9-9 tie into the 11th inning. In the top of the frame, State College scored two runs to pull ahead, but the Muckdogs put three runners across the plate in the bottom half to pull out the victory.

Wild throws doomed the Spikes in the 11th.

After the Muckdogs tied the score on a double by Geoffrey Klein, a triple by Chris Edmondson and a single by Victor Sanchez, Sanchez was able to reach second on a wild pitch.

Then things got really strange.

Audry Perez struck out swinging -- at a wild pitch. When Perez ran to first -- as a hitter can do when he strikes out but the catcher misses the ball -- catcher Miguel Mendez made the throw to first to record the out, but Sanchez, sprinting from second, didn't stop running. He scored the winning run when first baseman Gerlis Rodriguez threw the ball away.

Reliever Andy North was credited with the win.

Starter Nick McCully lasted only three-and-a-third innings, giving up 10 hits and nine runs (seven earned).

Edmundson and Sanchez each scored three runs in the game on two hits apiece.

Perez hit a grand-slam homer in the third.

The Muckdogs are in Jamestown tonight and return to Dwyer tomorrow to face the Jammers again. Jamestown is in third place in the Pinckney Division, three-and-a-half games behind Batavia.

UPDATE: Added video highlights from photographer Mike Janes.

"Jake Arnold" is one fast dachshund.

For the second year in a row, the 3-year-old owned by Jane Smart has won the prestigious Wiener Dog Races at Batavia Downs.

"Jake Arnold" beat out 52 other entrants, some of whom never even crossed the finish line, before a packed house of 3,850 race fans.

Taking second and third in the final heat of Sunday's races were Ron Schiller’s “Rudy” and Michael Tyrpak’s “Sahlen.”

From the Batavia Downs' press release:

While there’s no doubt "Jake Arnold" loves bacon treats, the key to success is he simply gets nervous when Jane Smart isn’t around.

“Since he’s been a pup, as soon as he sees me, he runs as fast as he can towards me,” said Smart, the winning dog's owner.

Thanks to “Jakes” good work, she received $100 to spend in the casino. And yes “Jake Arnold” will definitely be back next year.

For second-place finisher “Rudy,” this may have been his final appearance at the Genesee County oval. Definitely a champion, "Rudy" won the 2008 races and has finished second behind "Jake Arnold" the last two years.

“He’ll be 8 next year, we’ll have to see how’s he’s doing,” owner Ron Schiller said, but knowing Rudy, he’ll be back.

“We want to thank everyone for coming out and Petco for sponsoring the races,” said Todd Haight, promotional marketing specialist for Batavia Downs Casino and Western OTB. “It’s amazing how big this event has grown since its inception in 2005. It was definitely great to see such a large crowd.”

More pictures after the jump: