Sports

Extreme dirt track racing is getting bigger in Batavia. The WNY EDT committee brought in a regional race Saturday that attracted racers from as far away as New Jersey, and on Aug. 11, a national professional race will hit the track.

Amy McNutt said there's been ATV racing at the track -- which is about 50 years old -- for the past six or seven years, but a reconstituted race committee has been working hard to grow the sport locally.

"We're trying to grow the sport and let people in Batavia know the track is here so we get more spectators," McNutt said.

Batavia Motor Sports is located on Harloff Road next to Polar Wave.

The next closest track that runs extreme dirt track ATV races is in Geneva, McNutt said.

The race in August will bring racers from as far away as Oklahoma and South Dakota and points will count toward a national championship.

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A worker from CY Farms applies pesticide to the border area of Batavia Sports Park, off Bank Street Road, Batavia. The pesticide is being used as a precaution to protect the fields from armyworms. The actual playing fields were not sprayed, but soccer teams will be kept off the fields for at least 24 hours.

The Notre Dame girls softball team got a homecoming befitting state champions Saturday night with a police and fire escort from the Thruway, down Oak Street, east, then west on Main Street and finally down Woodward to the parking lot of their school.

The girls swept two games in Queensbury Saturday to become the state's Class D champions.

It's the third straight year the softball team had a chance at a title and it turned out truly to be a case of the third time's the charm.

"It took a lot of heart and dedication, waking up super early, getting to practice before games, hitting, throwing, the whole thing," Kaylin Young said. "It was definitely worth it."

In the semi-final game, the Fighting Irish beat Hamilton 9-2, but the championship game was much tighter with Notre Dame (19-7) taking a 1-0 victory over Deposit.

"We were the visiting team so I was the lead-off hitter and I got two early strikes," Laurie Call said. "I'm thinking, 'oh, my gosh,' and then I got a single. Then I just remember each time something bad happened, I just had to tell my adrenaline to go back down and make sure I'm focused on the game and not to worry about the state title. It's just another game."

It's the first state title in softball for Notre Dame.

"It means an awful lot to the Notre Dame community and the family that is Notre Dame," Coach Rick Mancuso said. "We're very proud of the girls and we would like to thank the community for coming out tonight, welcoming us as the newest state champions."

The newest state champions were greeted at the Thruway exit by Engine 12 and Ladder 15 of the Batavia Fire Department and three Batavia patrol cars. With lights and sirens, the caravan of players, parents and fans paraded through the city with dozens and dozens of people turning out along Main Street to cheer for the team.

Laurie said the city's greeting was really overwhelming.

"It’s really, finally like all that weightlifting you've been doing, all those pitches you’ve taken in the legs, like everything finally means something and you just kind of want to stop and cry," Laurie said.

The Notre Dame Girls Softball Team has won the New York state championship.

During my Friday morning drive, I took a turn down Oakta Trail Road and spotted somebody in the creek tying a fly to a leader. I introduced myself to Bill Westfall of Cheektowaga, who said, "Sure, go ahead and take some pictures." In the 15 minutes I hung around, his every cast hit his spot and he did land one small trout. 

The Notre Dame Girls Softball Team won the Far West Regional Championship today after defeating Forestville Central High School, 7-2.

Carly Pike fanned 10 and surrendered only five hits.

The team is now 19-7 on the season.

Notre Dame now moves on to the state semi-finals.

Photo submitted by Scott Grefrath.

The Special Olympic torch was carried from Elba to Batavia today by a group of runners -- mostly members of the local law enforcement community -- with a stop at Woodward Field for a run around the track with Batavia fifth-graders.

The torch was carried from Genesee ARC's location in Elba to ARC's main facility on Walnut Street.

The fifth-graders were at Van Detta Stadium today to participate in a variety of track and field competitions, but mostly the event is about helping the Class 2019 get to know each other as they transfer from three different elementary schools into a single middle school.

The children also heard remarks by some Special Olympic athletes.

Behind the four-hit performances of Laurie Call and Kendra Wall, the Notre Dame Girls Softball Team powered its way to an 11-1 win over DeSales in the quarter final game of the state Class D tournament.

The Fighting Irish, hungry for a state championship, will face Forestville at Monroe Community Colleg on Tuesday. Game time is 5 p.m.

The Notre Dame baseball team didn't fair as well, dropping a Class DD sectional title game to Arkport, 3-2, on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Batavia Blue Devils took a swing at a third-straight attempt to win a Class A Section V title, but dropped the Saturday game (a make-up for a rainout on Friday) to Honeoye Falls-Lima, 7-1.

Batavia High School football players volunteered their time Saturday to help with the Batavia Youth Football spaghetti dinner. Varsity and JV players helped with set up at the YWCA, helped serve and helped clean up afterward. Photo provided by Head Coach Brennan Briggs, on the right.

The Notre Dame Girls Softball Team won the Class D1 Section V championship tonight in Keshequa by beating Arkport 17-14. 

Photo submitted by Linda Bartlett.

The Blue Devils are Class B Section V outdoor track champions for the second season in a row, crushing the competition Saturday in Marion with 131 points.

Second place Aquinas had 72 points.

Individual event winners were:

Eric Williams, pole vault with a 12-foot jump, and 400 hurdles with a new school record of 57.5 seconds.

The boys 4x100 relay was won by Brandon Stevenson, Andrew Budlong, Mitch Noble and Alex Egeli with a time of 45.18.

Damion Reeves won shot put with a throw of 45' 7".

Ty Demmer won the 3,200-meter run with time of 10:15.

T.T. Martinez won pentathlon with 2,611 points.

This is the team's 4th outdoor title, and with a title in indoor track this winter, the Blue Devils now have 18 total track championships in the program's history.

Photos and information submitted by Steve Ognibene.

Coach Nick Burk with Section V track officials.

This weekend, young ball players from throughout the region are in Batavia for the annual Michael Napoleone baseball tournament.

The tournament acts as a fundraiser for the Michael Napoleone Foundation, which provides donations to cancer research, and as a memorial to Michael, who loved baseball.

Michael died in 2006 from Burkitt's lymphoma/leukemia, an aggressive form of blood cancer.

These pictures are from Saturday. The tournament runs through tomorrow.

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A Plattsburgh school teacher with a passion for troubled youth and for paintball has opened a game facility at the Genesee County Fairgrounds.

Jared Hogle said when there are competitions, teams will travel from all over the region -- from Syracuse, Binghamton and, of course, Rochester and Buffalo, which have a lot of tournament-level players.

"Batavia's centrally located and no more than two-and-a-half to three hours away from any of these places," Hogle said, explaining why he decided to open the facility in Batavia.

For about six years, Hogle has operated the Legacy Paintball Park at the Clinton County Fairgrounds in Plattsburgh.

"It's the third most popular sport in the world now," Hogle said. "Millions and millions of people play it. ESPN broadcasts tournaments, it's live streamed. It's the second biggest alternative sport in the United States."

But the new Batavia park isn't just for tournament players. It's open to any group -- church groups, scouts, bachelor parties, etc. -- they can all rent the facility.

Hogle also hopes the park will become a resource for local youths looking for positive activities.

"Ironically, Batavia isn't much different than Plattsburgh," Hogle said. "I drove around the streets last night and I saw kids walking around with nothing to do."

Kids with nothing to do, Hogle noted, get into trouble, but some of them also develop potentially destructive attitudes.

In Plattsburgh, Hogle has taken to bringing in bands with "positive" messages for the youth.

One band delivered a message about suicide and 150 kids at that show filled out counseling slips seeking follow-up phone calls.

"The kids are hurting, man," Hogle said. "The kids are hurting in school. We’ve had in the last month in Plattsburgh alone, we’ve had three or four people kill themselves. That’s where my passion is, to do the outreach, and if paintball can be a mediator to do that, and we can bring that positive music into the Batavia area, then that's where my passion is."

Hogle said in late summer, the paintball park will be moved to the west side of the fairgrounds, over by a wooded area, and another paintball playing area will be created in the woods.

His dream is that his business makes enough money that he can devote his full attention to it and provide more resources for youth, more positive venues for them to focus their attention on.

"I would love," he said, "if we ever make money, to put in a high ropes course up here and a rock climbing wall, get more people out and show there’s different ways to process troubled times rather just getting frustrated and getting to the point that you’re so depressed you take other matters into your hands."

Hogle anticipates the park being open during this summer's county fair and that there will be demonstrations and equipment rentals for people to try out the sport for themselves.

Contact information for Hogle can be found on his Web site.