Sports

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.

More pictures after the jump. To purchase these pictures, click here.

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.

More pictures after the jump:

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.

More pictures after the jump:

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.

Area youngsters were able to get in a little hockey practice today on Harvester Avenue, where resident Kevin Hamilton built a small hockey rink. Hamilton, who coaches two youth hockey teams, said he constructed the rink out of a wood frame, a plastic sheet base and slowly builds up the ice over time, adding a little water over several days.

 

The Falleti Ice Arena was packed with both Notre Dame and Batavia fans who were hoping their team would come away victorious. It was the Notre Dame fans that got their wish as their team had a powerful third period and defeated host Batavia 6-2.

"We were pumped to get out there and play them," said Batavia forward Nate Palmer. "It's always a fun game, but unfortunately it didn't end the way we wanted it to."

Batavia Notre Dame got on the board first as Josh Johnson snuck the puck by Batavia goaltender Adam Kurek on a play set up by Dylan Versage. 

Batavia failed to produce a strong offense in the first period, but came out strong early in the second as Conor Holvey set up Tim Finnell to tie the game at 1-1.

Notre Dame responded shortly after by taking the 2-1 as Tyler Kessler stole the puck and beat Kurek for the goal.

Josh Marr capped off the second-period scoring as he broke down the right side of the ice and sniped the puck over the right shoulder of ND goaltender Tom Dehr.

The third period was all ND as they capitalized four times.

The Irish came out hard and Zach Blew lit the lamp off a set up from Josh Johnson and Dylan Versage.

Story continued after the jump: 

Batavia responded shortly after with a great scoring chance as Josh Marr fed Nate Palmer on a 2 on 1, but Palmer was unable to get good wood on the shot.

"We had some chances but couldn't capitalize on them," says Palmer.

Brett Perfit continued the scoring driving as he put the fourth goal on the board in a solo effort.

Notre Dame's Jordan Difilippo got into a small fight in front of Dehr with Batavia's Tim Finnell, which led to coincidental penalties. After an argument with the referee, Batavia was assessed a bench minor penalty, giving ND the powerplay.

Jack Nenni and Brett Perfit set up Tyler Kessler to take advantage of the powerplay and put ND up 5-2.

Nenni scored shortly after to cap off the scoring at the final 6-2. Tyler Kessler and Brennan Brown were credited with the assist.

"We were very happy with our team's effort," says Notre Dame forward Dylan Versage. "We wanted the win and were all gonna do what we needed to get the win. Everyone contributed and it paid off."

 GAME HAS NOT YET BEGAN. PLEASE STAY TUNED! THANK YOU!

ND vs BHS hockey game

It's one of the biggest games of the year. This Saturday the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (6-1-2-1) will host the Batavia Ice Devils (4-6-1-0) at the Falleti Ice Arena in front of an almost guaranteed sold out arena. The netcasting will begin shortly before the game that is set to faceoff at 1 p.m.

The game will be netcast live right here on The Batavian. It will include play-by-play updates and an up-to-date scoreboard and time-clock. Anyone following the netcast will also be able to participate in game polls, and get the chance to ask questions in a chat room style.

This matchup will be the first time the two teams meet this year. Notre Dame will be led by leading scorer Jack Nenni and goaltender Tom Dehr, who again this year, is ranked one of the top goaltenders in Section V. Batavia will be led by Junior forward Josh Marr, who is currently leading the team in points.

In an item added at the least minute to the city council agenda Monday night, the council approved an extension to the Dwyer Stadium lease agreement for the Batavia Muckdogs.

Formalizing the lease agreement extension in a hurry-up fashion was necessary, said City Manager Jason Molino, because it's only been recently that another year of professional baseball in Batavia was "set in stone." 

Once that was in place, Molino said, the New York-Penn League demanded a lease agreement be in place well before the start of the season.

The NY-Penn League has been pretty demanding during the off season, Molino said, and the city has, in response, made improvements to the field and locker rooms.

"You talk about unfunded state mandates," Molino said. "Minor league baseball has mandates of its own."

Near the end of the 2010 season, league president Ben Hayes spoke harshly about the condition of the Dwyer playing field. Molino said the field wasn't in the horrid shape Hayes made it out to be, but the league did have some (valid) concerns.

"We addressed those concerns in the fall and the league is satisfied with the changes that we've made," Molino said.

The renewed lease makes few changes to prior agreements and does not increase the funding burden on taxpayers, Molino said.

The primary change is memorializing a capital expense fund balance with a minimum balance of $20,000, though the city has a $60,000 balance currently, Molino said.

Notre Dame entered the 4th quarter of the Rotary Club of Batavia Girls Basketball Tournament finals down by 8 points.

All night, Perry gave Notre Dame room for plenty of attempts, but the shots just weren't dropping. That all changed in the 4th quarter. Suddenly, whatever invisible shield had been keeping the ball out of the basket disappeared.

The Lady Irish scored 20 points in the 4th quarter, compared only six points for Perry.

Final score, Notre Dame 45, Perry 39.

Carly Pike had 19 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 steals for the Fighting Irish (8-0). Pike scored 13 of her 19 points in the fourth quarter.

In the consolation game, Alexander beat Batavia 56-52.

All-Tournament players: Cheslea Turcer, Alexander; Lisa Redband, Batavia; Karissa 
Schuster and Erica Miller, Perry; Riley Norton, Notre Dame; Carly Pike was named MVP.

Winners photo submitted by Tim Call.

More pictures after the jump, with even more available for purchase by clicking here.

NOTE: For Tuesday's games, I used the wrong pricing sheet for photo purchases. That's been corrected and those photos are available by clicking here.

Perry and Notre Dame will move on to a finals match in the 2010 Batavia Rotary Girls Basketball Tournament at GCC on Thursday.

Both squads won by big margins in first-round action Tuesday.

Perry beat Batavia High 50-31 and the Lady Irish overcame Alexander 60-44.

A few more pictures after the jump.  A total of 75 photos are available for sale by clicking here.