Sports

Danielle Haskell, still a junior, proved Saturday why she's going to a Division I university after she graduates in leading her team, Franklinville, to a 49-32 victory over the Elba Lancers in the Class D Far West Regional Championship.

Haskell scored 33 points, despite being held to one for 11 from the three-point line. No other player for Franklin even got close to double digits in scoring, with Abby Burrell and Abby McCoy scoring five points each.

Elba jumped out to an early lead but couldn't hold it and after the third quarter where the Lancers scored only three points, it was hard for the team to get back in the game.

Leah Bezon scored 11 points, Brynn Walczak, nine, Lauryn Engle, six, and Taylor Augello, four. Maddie Muehlig had five assists.

Photos by Thomas Ognibene from Steve Ognibene Photography.

To view or purchase photos, click here.

The Oakfield-Alabama Hornets beat the Avon Braves at Genesee Community College Wednesday night 46-25 to advance to the Far West Regional championship in Class C.

The Hornets will play Maple Grove at 3 p.m., Saturday, at Buffalo State.

Elba dominated from beginning to end last night at Letchworth in a girls basketball contest to see which Class D Section V champion (Class D1 and Class D2) would move on to play in the Far West Regional championship this weekend.

Elba won easily 48-29.

Maddie Muehlig scored 17 points, hitting three three-point shots. She had three assists, three blocked shots, and two steals.

Leah Bezon scored 13 points, and Taylor Augello and Brynn Walczak scored eight each. Bezon, Walczak and Maddi Howard each had two steals. Howard also had four assists.

For Fillmore, Hannah Roeske scored 10 points.

Elba will play Section VI Class D champion Franklinville at 1 p.m., Saturday, at Buffalo State College.

Photos by Thomas Ognibene from Steve Ognibene Photography.

To view or purchase photos, click here.

Below, four additional photos by David Zuppelli.

For the first 10 minutes of Monday's crossover game between Pembroke and Avon at Cal-Mum, it looked like the Dragons might be on their way to continuing a great post-season run that on Saturday had given the school its first sectional title in girls basketball.

Then, things fell apart and Pembroke would eventually lose to Avon 57-49. A pair of whistles for traveling gave Avon the ball in their half of the court and Avon erased Pembroke's three-point lead on two easy baskets.

Next, Avon's Abby Decillis and Keni Read rained threes down on the Dragons. They hit five between them plus another pair of two-point buckets. 

"We had a little bit of a run going," said Coach Ron Funke. "We had some momentum. The turnovers and then those daggers, those three-pointers were just, you know, they just killed us."

In the second quarter, Avon outscored the Dragons 26 to 12. Only once the rest of the way would Pembroke get as close as nine points of the lead.

On the night, Decillis hit three three-pointers and Read hit five. Decillis finished with 20 points, Read with 19, and Sarine Mcdowell with 17.

"We got some of the looks that we wanted, we just couldn't finish near the basket," Funke said. "And our free throws ... I just can't understand. We set a school record for free throws percentages this season."

On Monday, Pembroke shot only five for 15 from the line.

In the fourth quarter, down by 14 or 15 points, Pembroke got some life back with under five minutes to play. Playing with hustle and confidence, twice they pulled within nine points of the lead but time expired before they could close the gap.

"They never quit," Funke said. "That's for sure. They never have. And you know, those girls they never will."

For Pembroke, Serene Calderon scored 16 points. MacKenna Johnson scored 13. Dekari Moss scored nine. Casey Wurtz scored six.

At 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at Genesee Community College, Avon plays Oakfield-Alabama to see which Class C team will represent Section V in the Far West Regional championship.

For the longest time, Batavian Ron Lawrence flew under the radar when it came to throwing honor scores. That's not the case anymore.

In November, the 61-year-old right-hander posted his first United States Bowling Congress-certified 300 game at Mancuso Bowling Center and this past week, he recorded his first USBC-certified 800 series, also at Mancuso’s.

Lawrence's big series came in the Antique World Tuesday Coed League. His rolled 31 strikes, including the last 22 in a row in a 245, 268, 300 effort on lanes 19-20.

In other league action around the Genesee Region, Jeremy Vallance of Warsaw rolled a 300 game and 758 series and Nate Cordes of Batavia shot 290--748 in the Toyota of Batavia Thursday Night League at Mancuso's.

For a list of high scores last week, click on the Pin Points tab at the top of this page. 

Mike Pettinella's next Pin Points bowling column is scheduled for this Thursday.

Defense helped Pembroke get passed #1 seed Marion on Thursday and on Saturday, the Lady Dragons again held their opponent in check to clinch the team's first-ever sectional title.

Pembroke, which came in seeded fourth, beat #3 seed Geneseo 43-38 in Class C2.

There are three Class C brackets this year in Section V and only one Class C team will represent Section V against Section VI in the Far West Regional championship game, so tomorrow Pembroke plays Avon, Class C1 champions, to see who will play Oakfield-Alabama, Class C3 champions, for a chance to represent Class C going forward.

Game time tomorrow is 7 p.m. tomorrow at Cal-Mum.

On Saturday, Casey Wertz scored 10 points, Dekari Moss, nine, Emily Peters, nine, Serene Calderon, eight, and MacKenna Johnson, seven.

For Geneseo, Heidi Phelps scored 11 points and Kaniya Jackson scored 10.

To view more photos, click here.

Photos by Steve Ognibene.

If a high school basketball team can play a perfect first half of a game, that's what the Oakfield-Alabama Hornets did Saturday morning on their way to an upset victory over #1 seed South Seneca in the Class C3 Section V championship match at Victor High School.

O-A won 43-39. 

"Offensively, we were knocking some shots down," said Coach Jeff Schlagenhauf. "Defensively, I thought we were incredibly good. One of the big things that hurt us in the quarter-final and the semifinal was rebounding. We got outrebounded in both games so for the last two days in practice we said, 'look it, we've got to rebound the ball' and I thought we did a really good job."

In the second half, South Seneca started knocking down shots and shaved the O-A lead significantly but the Hornets didn't break. They maintained their mental toughness, countered with their own points and stuck to their defensive game plan.

"You're right, any time they made a run, we had a big play," Schlagenhauf said. "Sometimes it's those little things. There was a couple of deflections that ended up going out of bounds that we got our hands on that changed the possession. Kelsey had a great tie-up on a rebound that gave us a possession. Those are little things that sometimes go unnoticed, but that's how we got back in the game the other night against Keshequa."

For O-A, Tori Mandel scored 14 points and tournament MVP Danica Porter scored 11 points. She also had seven rebounds and Kelsey Schlagenhauf scored six points and had eight rebounds. 

The leading scorer for the Hornets on the year, Brianna Smith, with a 15-points-per-game average and 364 points on the year, was held to six points. She also had seven rebounds.

Watch the video for more comments from Schlagenhauf, Mandel and Smith (with our apologies for not including Porter in the video but the cameraman messed up that interview).

Lauryn Engle had the hot hand in the first half to help lead the Elba Lancers to their third consecutive Section V championship Friday night at Letchworth -- 54-42 over Whitesville.

Engle hit 67 percent of her shots, going five for eight on three-point attempts along with one two-point field goal for 17 points on the night.

The Lady Lancers had an 18-point lead at the half over Whitesville in the Class D2 game.

On the night, Elba was seven of 13 on three-point attempts while Whitesville was two for 13.

Scoring from the outside was Elba taking advantage of what Whitesville gave them, said Coach Tom Redband.

"Whitesville is clearly taught to pack in the paint and have a lot of gap help and a lot of help on the inside," Redband said. "A lot of the layups weren't necessarily there. One of their goals is to take charge so the three-pointers were open, but you have to make them. We did the first half."

Whitesville managed to tighten up the score to only a single-digit lead for Elba at a couple of points in the fourth quarter but the Lancers stayed calm and carried on.

"When it gets like that you want to calm them down and I think the girls stayed calm," Redband said. "When you're up at half-time by 18 points it doesn't mean you win by 36. They kept their cool pretty well. I just think we've needed to kind of slow down and breath "

Brynn Walczak also had a big night, scoring 15 points, getting eight points on free throws. She had 12 rebounds.

Leah Bezon scored eight points, had 10 rebounds. She also blocked three shots and had three steals.

Taylor Augello scored nine points, had seven rebounds and two steals.

Maddie Howard led the team in steals Friday with four while scoring three points.

For Whitesville, Fayln Lewis-Ellison scored 17 points and Vanessa Hall scored 15.

Elba had 12 total steals to five for Whitesville.

To view or purchase photos, click here.

Photos by Thomas Ognibene from Steve Ognibene Photography.

The Batavia High Lady Blue Devils’ season came to a resounding halt Friday night as defending champion Midlakes rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit and cruised to a 79-66 victory in the Section 5 Girls’ Basketball Tournament Class B1 championship game before a packed and raucous crowd at Caledonia-Mumford High School.

With the win, Midlakes, now 20-3, moves on to face Dansville for the unified Class B title next Tuesday at a site to be determined.

The loss ends Batavia’s fine campaign at 19-3 overall, with its two previous losses to teams in higher classifications.

At the outset, Coach Marty Hein’s Lady Devils rode some sharp long-range shooting to stay in front of the Screaming Eagles.

After sophomore guards Bryn Wormley and Mackenzie Reigle each hit a pair of three-pointers in the opening minutes, senior guard Ryann Stefaniak found the mark for four three-pointers, including a buzzer-beater off the glass on a nice assist from sophomore guard Tess Barone, to give the Lady Devils a 20-14 lead.

It was more of the same in the second quarter as Stefaniak hit a pair of threes to give Batavia its biggest lead at 26-18. Midlakes quickly managed to pull within four, but baskets by Stefaniak and Reigle gave the Devils a 32-24 halftime lead.

Stefaniak scored 20 points in the first half – one more than her average – and outplayed Midlakes’ 23-point-per-game scorer, senior guard Alaina Forbes, who had 10 points.

The Eagles came out in a press to open the second half and Forbes and senior forward Macy Kisner each scored to make it 32-28.

Batavia responded, however, as Stefaniak drove the length of the court after a Midlakes’ miss, sank a layup, got fouled and made the free throw to put Batavia up 35-28 with 6:40 left in the third quarter.

From there, the wheels fell off for Batavia, which found itself consistently watching Forbes, Kisner and sophomore guard Cara Walker beat the defense for easy layups.

Midlakes scored eight straight points – on two free throws by Walker, a three-pointer by Forbes and two layups by senior center Sydney Passalacqua -- to tie the game and then scored 19 of the game’s next 25 points to take a 54-41 advantage into the final period.

Forbes had eight of those points, all on uncontested layups.

Both teams scored 25 points in the fourth quarter, with Batavia unable to get any closer than 11 points down.

Forbes scored 11 points in the period, often on layups after accepting long outlet passes as she laid back on defense. She also hit a key three-pointer and proceeded to play up to the Midlakes’ crowd which roared its approval.

Stefaniak added two more three-point baskets in the fourth quarter and finished her outstanding high school career with 35 points.

Wormley and Reigle had 16 and 11, respectively, while junior forward Emma Krolczyk tallied four points.

For Midlakes, which will face Class B2 champion Dansville for the combined Class B title next week, Forbes led the way with 35 points while Walker scored 20, Kisner 12 and Passalacqua eight.

Hein said Midlakes’ experience (with three senior starters) made the difference, especially in the way the Eagles exploited Batavia’s efforts to crash the boards in attempts for offensive rebounds.

“They’re a seasoned team which has been here before; they didn’t get to the states last year by accident,” Hein said. “They controlled (the second half) and did what they needed to do while we we’re kind of running around like a chicken with its head cut off.”

Hein said they talked about how Forbes liked to release early and thought his team did a good job in the first half.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get the one girl on top to get back on defense (after intermission),” he said. “I don’t like losing but I’m not disappointed with our effort throughout the 32 minutes. It came down to (Midlakes’) wisdom, knowledge and experience.”

Hein said he believes the returning players "will be much stronger from this" and is optimistic about this team's chances next year with the return of Reigle, Wormley, Krolczyk and their supporting cast.

Stefaniak and Reigle were named to the All-Tournament Team along with Midlakes’ Kisner, Walker and Forbes, the latter being named Most Valuable Player.

Batavia seniors Meghan Houseknecht and Jenae Colkey have been chosen to play in the Exceptional Seniors game next Thursday at Greece Athena High while Stefaniak will play in the Ronald McDonald charity contest on March 23.

To view or purchase photos, click here.

Photos by Steve Ognibene.

The Pembroke Dragons knocked off the #1 seed Marion in a Section V Class C2 semifinal Thursday 46-42 to advance to a shot a sectional title Saturday in Victor against Geneseo.

Serene Calderon scored 15 points for the Dragons. Dekari Moss scored 13 and Casey Wertz scored nine. 

Game time for Pembroke on Saturday is 1 p.m.

On Wednesday night, Oakfield-Alabama beat Keshequa to advance to the finals of the Class C3 bracket. O-A, the #2 seed, will play #1 seed South Seneca at 11 a.m. tomorrow in Victor.

For the Hornets on Wednesday, Brianna Smith scored 20 points.

Tonight in Class D2, Elba plays for a sectional title against Whitesville at 6 p.m. at Letchworth, and in Class B1, Batavia plays Midlakes at 8 p.m. at Cal-Mum.

Due to higher than anticipated ticket sales, tonight's basketball game featuring the Harlem Wizards will take place inside the Oakfield-Alabama High School Gymnasium instead of at O-A elementary school.

Doors open at 6 and the game starts at 7.

Online ticket sales ended at noon today. If still available, tickets will be sold at the door -- $10 for students and $12 for adults.

The Oakfield-Alabama Elementary Student Council, in conjunction with the Genesee Community College Baseball Team, are presenting this exciting sports spectacle.

The high school is located at 7001 Lewiston Road, Oakfield.

"Tricks, hoops & ally oops!"

The Elba Lancers lost to Belfast at Mount Morris on Tuesday night in the Class D2 Section V semifinal 44-40.

Also on Tuesday, Alexander lost to Red Jacket 71-58 in the Class C2 Section V semifinal.

There are no boys teams from Genesee County who survived past the semifinal rounds of the sectional playoffs.

Photos by David Zuppelli.

Brynn Walczak scored 19 points over Romulus in the Section V Class D2 semifinal playoff game to lead the Elba Lady Lancers to a 46-30 win.

"Well, it definitely was a slower-paced game with not a lot of shots of taken on both ends," said Coach Tom Redband. "It seemed like one of those games where every possession kind of mattered. It wasn't a real high-flying game. It didn't feel that way and statistics said that as well, too."

Leah Bezon scored 10 points for Elba as did Taylor Augello.

Bezon also had four steals.

The #1 ranked Lancers now advance to a Section V championship game at 6 p.m. at Letchworth against #3 ranked Whitesville.

"It's going to be a tough game," Redband said. "We played them last year and we could see that defensively they're a good team. Their shots weren't falling when they played us last year.

"The score was a little lopsided first in the first quarter and then in the second half, we saw what they are capable of. So hopefully we come out and a few more shots fall and we continue the defensive game plan and put ourselves in a position to win."

Tonight in girls basketball, Pembroke plays Marion at 7:45 at Canandaigua in a Class C2 semifinal, and Oakfield-Alabama plays Keshequa at 6 o'clock at HFL in a Class C3 semifinal.

Emma Krolczyk goes up for a layup.

Jenae Colkey (34) and Mackenzie Reigle attempt to stop Pal-Mac's Sophie Lyko.

Ryann Stefaniak looks to drive to the hoop.

A steal by Reigle leads to a Batavia basket.

Bryn Wormley controls the loose ball.

Part of the large contingent of Batavia fans react to the victory.

Finding themselves up by only two points with about five minutes to play, the top-seeded Batavia High Lady Blue Devils were in need of a spark, something to put some distance between them and the No. 4 Palmyra-Macedon Lady Red Raiders in their Section 5 Class B1 semifinal girls’ basketball game tonight at Caledonia-Mumford High.

Pal-Mac, a decided underdog, had jumped out to a seven-point quarter lead and hung in there through three quarters as Batavia was unable to get its offense in gear.

But just when it looked as though Pal-Mac was about to tie the game, key plays by a trio of Lady Devils in a minute’s time resulted in a 7-0 spurt and propelled Batavia to a 44-32 victory.

The win puts Coach Marty Hein’s team in the championship game at 8 p.m. Friday at Cal-Mum against Midlakes, a 58-32 winner over Greece Odyssey in the first game of the doubleheader.

On a night when top scorer Ryann Stefaniak struggled from the field (4-for-11 including 0-for-5 from three-point territory), Emma Krolczyk and Mackenzie Reigle came through with 14 and 13 points, respectively, and Jenae Colkey led a stifling defense that allowed only 15 points over the final three quarters.

Colkey, a senior guard/forward who has to play inside on defense, came up with a remarkable defensive stop when she got in position in the lane to prevent a fast-break layup that would have tied the game. The missed shot eventually made its way to Krolczyk who drove to the hoop to make it 31-27 – a four-point swing.

Krolczyk then rebounded a Pal-Mac missed and kicked the ball out to Reigle, who sank Batavia’s first three-pointer of the game to make it 34-27 at the 3:52 mark. Following a Pal-Mac timeout, Reigle stole the ball and flew in for a layup to give the Lady Devils a 36-27 edge.

Another three-pointer, this one by Bryn Wormley, and pair of baskets by Stefaniak in the closing 1:30 sealed the win.

The decisive seven-point run came just after Stefaniak had been called for her fourth foul, sending her to the bench. The fact that her teammates picked her up should give Batavia a lot of confidence heading into Friday’s match against No. 2 Midlakes, 19-3.

Hein credited the defense for saving the day while lamenting the team’s offensive execution.

“In all the interviews that I have been giving, I have said I’m not worried about the offense, but I almost shot myself in the foot (with this game),” Hein said. “We were helter-skelter and impatient and didn’t move the ball very well. Hopefully, we will put the pieces together on Friday.”

He called Reigle (she also had five steals and three rebounds) a “huge sparkplug” and praised Colkey, one of three seniors on the team, for “taking on the leadership role tonight and settling the team down.”

Colkey had three assists, six rebounds and two steals to go with her two points, while Stefaniak, who was coming off a 35-point outburst in the quarterfinals, finished with 10 points – nine less than her average -- along with four rebounds and four steals.

Overall, Batavia was 18-for-50 from the field (36 percent) and just 2-for-10 on threes.

For Pal-Mac, senior forward Gretchen Earl was the top scorer with 12 points while junior guard Katie Smith sank a pair of three-pointers in the first quarter and finished with seven points.

Photos by Steve Ognibene. To view or purchase photos, click here.

Press release:

TicketReturn announced today that it will become the exclusive ticketing provider for the Batavia Muckdogs professional baseball team.

The club’s box office will be able to take advantage of TicketReturn’s strategic partnerships and dedicated client support representatives to best serve fans across Genessee County.

TicketReturn, a leading provider of box office, online and mobile ticketing services, offers nearly two decades of technology management experience to help clients across the country exceed their goals.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based company offers a full suite of ticketing innovations, including event marketing, access control, attendance reporting, accounting and fundraising features for sports and entertainment venues.

The Muckdogs will benefit from TicketReturn’s strategic partnership with Groupmatics, which offers a streamlined process for the sale and distribution of group tickets. The club will also be able to add its own color palettes and logos on TicketReturn’s enhanced mobile design for customer transactions.

Batavia can now offer non-ticket inventory items during the online transaction. TicketReturn has shown a proven ability to deliver incremental revenue for its ticketing partners.

The Muckdogs will be able to offer fans a variety of ticket packages, including season tickets and mini-plans.

“We’re looking forward to working closely with Batavia’s box office team as they prepare for the season.” said Christie Hussey, TicketReturn’s vice president of Sales and Marketing.

“We pride ourselves on offering client support representatives that are available to provide support and fast onboarding as the Muckdogs prepare for the new season.”

The Batavia Muckdogs competes in the New York-Penn League as the Short-Season Class-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins.

This partnership furthers TicketReturn’s commitment to provide ticketing solutions and services to professional sports teams, colleges and universities throughout the country.

About TicketReturn  

TicketReturn is a leading provider of box office and online ticketing services serving more than 250 client venues and issuing more than 38 million tickets annually. As the leading provider of ticketing services for Minor League Baseball (MiLB) in the United States and Canada, TicketReturn also serves minor league hockey teams, soccer, basketball and lacrosse. TicketReturn’s diverse client venues range from theater and casino showrooms, motorsports, horse racing, university arenas and sports stadiums reflecting the ease of use and scalability of the platform.

For more information about TicketReturn, visit us at www.ticketreturn.com

All Section 5 Girls Basketball Tournament semifinal games scheduled for tonight have been postponed until Tuesday night at the same locations.

Those games include:

Class B1 -- Batavia versus Palmyra-Macedon at Caledonia-Mumford High School at 7:45;

Class B2 -- Attica versus Wellsville at Honeoye Falls-Lima High School at 6:00;

Class D2 -- Elba versus Romulus at Dansville High School at 7:45.

Section 5 Boys Basketball Tournament games now scheduled for Tuesday are as follows:

Class C2 -- Perry vs. Lyons, Alexander vs. Red Jacket at Pittsford-Sutherland High School, 6:30 and 8:15 p.m., respectively.

Class C3 -- Caledonia-Mumford vs. Naples at Letchworth High School, 6 p.m.

Class C3 -- Lyndonville vs. York at Batavia High School, 5:30 p.m.

Class D2 -- Elba vs. Belfast at Mount Morris High School, 5:30 p.m.

For complete information about Section 5 girls basketball, go to www.sectionvgirlsbasketball.net.

To reach the Section 5 boys basketball website, go to www.sectionvsoccer.net.

A bus driver for the Le Roy Central School District by day, an avid league bowler by night.

That is what retired Genesee County sheriff's deputy Roger Stone is up to now and, on the lanes, he's been doing very well lately.

The 64-year-old Batavia right-hander nearly had a couple of perfect games this week -- posting 298 in a 747 on Wednesday night in the County Line Stone League at Scopano's Lanes in Oakfield, and 287 in a 730 series in the Sunday Rolloffs League at Medina Lanes.

In the G&W Vending League at Rose Garden Bowl in Bergen, Ryan Flaherty of Rochester fired a 300 game en route to a 760 series.

Several other league bowlers hit the 700 mark last week, and you can see the list of high rollers by clicking on the Pin Points tab at the top of this page.