DIARY OF A MAD SPORTSWRITER

The good news is that the Section II rowing championship heat sheets are posted. The bad news is that according to one Section II coach there were some very late changes to the Sunday schedule. Here is version 2 and includes those changes. The other portion of bad news is that parking is only available at the Jewish Community Center for $5 and now entails a 30-minute school bus shuttle to the spectator venue as parking is no longer allowed at the Aqueduct Rowing Club.
Very disappointing for spectators, not for the fee, Lee’s Park is $10 a day for all events at Fish Creek, but the 30-minute shuttle is disappointing. Aqueduct may have just taken the Mohawk River out of the picture for future Section II events. Look for Saratoga to be pressured into hosting the event, something their volunteers won’t be crazy about or a move up river to the Burnt Hills boathouse.
Section II Heat Sheets Ver 2

The Columbia baseball team rallied for four runs with two outs in it’s final at-bat Wednesday afternoon on the road at Shenendehowa to earn an 8-5 Suburban Council win on a pinch-hit two-run single by Mike Luther.
Down, 5-4 in the seventh inning the Blue Devils (8-2) Jonas Godell reached after being hit by a pitch from left-handed Plainsmen reliever Colin Grande. The Shen reliever recovered and delivered the second out, covering first base and was one out away from the save.
Ian Castle and Tim Gaule both walked, setting up Columbia skipper Chris Dedrick’s big move, sending up Luther to pinch hit for left-handed batter Tyler Casavant, who then delivered the game-winning two-run single to right, putting the Blue Devils up 6-5.
“I think there is a big advantage having a righty hit on a lefty (pitcher) and Casavant is an excellent batter, but has been struggling his last couple at-bats against lefties,” Dedrick said. “He (Luther) was our starting DH for a while, batting fourth the first couple games. He started to get his timing off a bit, he’s been working on it in practice and has really been hitting the ball well in practice.”
Luther stood in the batter’s box and delivered a memorable swing.
“You get that feeling preparing yourself for that hit, that at-bat,” Luther said. “It was lefty on lefty and he wanted to get a righty up there and a chance to get a hit, just a great feeling.
“The feeling after you get that hit, seeing those runs come across, it erases whatever slump you’ve been in,” Luther said. “It’s one of the greatest feelings in baseball.”
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For the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake varsity baseball team it was an ugly loss and for the Shenendehowa Plainsmen, it was an ugly win.
Shenendehowa and starting pitcher Miles Kelly walked away with a 13-3 Suburban Council victory Monday afternoon, taking advantage of Burnt Hills struggling starter Cody Mooney and his defense for the win.
“Ten walks, two hit batters and five errors, that’s 19 or 20 guys we put on base,” Spartan skipper Paul DeLuca said. “They didn’t have many hits, three hits off Mooney, he gutted it out but had no command of his fastball, that was his downfall.
“We put him out there against teams like this because I think he can get guys out and nothing changed today in how I thought he throws the ball, but just not commanding his fastball,” DeLuca said. That was his downfall. If a couple plays are made behind him, it’s a different game.”
Burnt Hills opened the scoring in the top of the first inning, putting pressure on the Plainsmen, but Nick Giunta tied it up with one swing of his bat, leading off for Shenendehowa.

“He threw me two balls and a ball that I thought was outside, Giunta said. “It proved to be beneficial because he threw me a ball that I hit out of the ballpark.”
Shenendehowa tacked on two more runs after Matt Buckley and Justin Yurchak both walked and took advantage of a fielding error by the right fielder on a drive by Kyle Buss and Chris Miller reached on a miscue by the second baseman allowing all Buckley, Yurchak and Buss to score for the 4-1 lead.
After a stronger second inning by Mooney and his defense, bad luck found the Spartans in the third with Kyle Buss reaching on an error, Miller getting hit by a pitch and Tyler Vyce driving in a run with his grounder. Giunta delivered a long RBI single with the bases loaded for a 6-1 lead.
“I got all of it, but the kid was standing so far back that he caught up with it,” Giunta said. “I haven’t had a hit with bases loaded in so long. I’ve been feeling pretty good, so I hit the ball well.”
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Everything that the 15th annual Saratoga Invitational regatta was billed as proved to be true on Sunday as more than 390 racing shells sped down the Fish Creek course at varying distances, side-by-side to see who was the fastest under sunny skies.
“Branksome Hall came seven hours, from Toronto to race here today, E.L. Crossley the defending Canadian national champions for the past 11 years were here and they showed you why they are,” Chase said. “You pick an event and they were in it. They don’t go down easy.
“CBC, the CRIs the showed up and they are what they claim to be and what people think they are,” Chase said. “I heard people say ‘We beat CRI in this event, I’ll take that.’ Because it might be the only time they beat them in that rower’s life they might beat CRI. Manhasset was amazing, first, second or third in every race they entered. I think today was what everyone things of when they think of the Saratoga Invitational.”

The Saratoga Rowing Association captured 10 different flights Sunday afternoon with six boats finishing second and three more finishing in third place out of the 69 contested races, including the boys varsity four that got stronger as the race went on, covering the classic distance of 2,000-meters in seven minutes, 18.30 seconds, winning by more than 14 seconds over the competition.
The power provided by the defending scholastic national champions, Arik Torkelson, Liam Casey, Luke O’Brien and John Howe, allowed coxswain Rachel Bowen to focus on steering her way to a gold medal.
“Our start was very strong,” Bowen said. “They guys at the end (of the race) said it was strong over the first 500-meters.
“Towards the middle it got windy, the wind picked up and the speed went down a little bit,” Bowen said. “The last 500 the wind died down and we picked it right back up.”
To complete the entire racing schedule was a welcome relief for Chase, who scrambled to get Friday’s entire schedule in due to wind and saw the novice and modified races cancelled Saturday afternoon.
“The crew on the water did an amazing job,” Chase said. “I think their was a little bit of pressure and a little extra patience because the kids that were out there at that point were the same kids that got kicked off the water yesterday. I think there was a lot of patience by the volunteers and the judge-referees part to make sure they didn’t get taken out two days in a row. That patience paid off.”
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CLIFTON PARK — Shenendehowa freshman girls basketball coach Joe Murphy made one of his biggest moves on the sidelines for the Plainsmen Tuesday night, unanimously approved by the board of education and was named as the girls varsity coach, replacing Ken Strube who retired from coaching at the end of the 2011-2012 season.
Murphy has been the freshman coach since 2008 and boasts an impressive 68-3 record, including three undefeated seasons. He has been one of Strube’s top coaching assistants, acting at the head scout and responsible for game film preparation.
“We are thrilled to have a coach the caliber of Joe Murphy to replace Ken Strube,” Shenendehowa athletic director Christopher Culnan said after the board meeting. “Ken Strube set such a high standard during his tenure as a Section II coach here at Shenendehowa.
“We are confident that Joe (Murphy) will continue to uphold those standards that everyone in the Clifton Park community is accustomed to,” Culnan said.
Strube announced his retirement prior to the winter season at a press conference in the Shenendehowa High School East library. Along with Strube, his junior varsity coach and assistant Tim Minor confirmed his own retirement.
According to Culnan no decisions have been made on the lower level coaches.
“Joe and I will sit down and post the position in the future,” Culnan said. “We have some great internal prospects within the Shenendehowa School District to consider for those roles.”
Tuesday evening’s announcement wraps up a whirlwind of retirements, searches and appointments for the Shenendehowa athletic department.
“This completes a 10-month process that started in the fall with (football coach) Brent Steuerwald announcing his retirement followed by the announcements by Ken Strube and (boys soccer coach) Mike Campisi,” Culnan said. “This has been an incredible process that the athletic department and the administration has taken very seriously as we interviewed dozens of people to replace these three icons.
“This has been a very gratifying experience, to look at the candidates and to have the opportunity to discuss the future of Shenendehowa athletics,” Culnan said. “At the same time, we were respectful to the outgoing coaches for their commitment and success to the Plainsmen programs. In both instances, the retirements and the announcements, it has shown the quality of individuals that are committed to the student athletes here at Shenendehowa.”
A press conference is expected to be announced for Wednesday afternoon to introduce Joe Murphy to the media in the Shenendehowa High School East library.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Remember the old television commercial about margarine that ended with “You can’t fool Mother Nature,” after she though the margarine was butter and was unhappy being fooled.
Apparently Mother Nature isn’t happy to be fooled by rowers at Fish Creek either.
One day after flexing around winds that forced the cancellation of the early singles events, saw the doubles events row through choppy water and then saw the singles get their races in later, Mother Nature wasn’t fooling around Saturday afternoon, forcing the cancellation of the remaining 13 races at the 15th annual Saratoga Invitational.
Safety is always the most important thing,” head judge-referee Jim Flanders said. “You are looking to see that the conditions are safe for the rowers, conditions are safe for the type and class of rowers you have.
“If kids seem to be getting cold, hypothermic out there or it’s getting unmanageable conditions where they can’t control their boats, we have to use our voice of authority and revoke the privilege of racing send them back to the docks,” Flanders said. “Then we hope that we can postpone and get them back out there again, but it didn’t work out today.”

Flanders and his group of judge-referees did everything they could to keep the competition in place.
“The afternoon was a challenge, we started with some great racing this morning,” Flanders said. “The weather was excellent and the wind wasn’t unbearable, conditions slowly got worse.
“The wind started to pick up, the kids were having a much harder time getting onto the stake boats, getting to the stake boats and getting off the stake boats,” Flanders said. “We attempted to shorten the course to 1,000-meters from 1,500 to give the novice rowers a chance to row without stake boats getting in their way, but proved to be untenable. We attempted once more with some varsity crews to see if they could get another race off. After 10 minutes of watching them struggle and not even be able to get down to the stake boats we decided to postpone the race.”
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15th Annual Saratoga Invitational Saturday, Apr 28, 2012 heat sheet

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Mother Nature won the battle, but the rowers competing in the smallest boats on Fish Creek won the war Friday as the first day of the 15th annual Saratoga Invitational completed all of its scheduled events despite cancelling races earlier in the day.
“The biggest difficulty on a day like today is the direction of the wind,” Saratoga Rowing executive director and girls varsity coach Eric Catalano said. “We had a cross wind and it makes it extremely difficult for the shells, especially the shells without a coxswain, to stay in their lane.
“They have to be constantly steering upwind, angling off of their lane just to stay in their lane,” Catalano said. “That was really challenging. We had a couple of crews that slid over into the neighboring lane, making racing even that much more challenging.”

SRA regatta director Chris Chase made the call to cancel the singles races set to begin at 3 p.m. for the safety of the one-person racing shells. The pairs were then sent to test the waters and their mettle against the wind and the competition across seven lanes beginning at 4 p.m.
“It was pretty rough,” Liam Casey said. “It was really choppy and the gusts really screwed up a lot of the points and lining up took a long time. The win was pushing everyone out of alignment, which wasn’t that great. It was pretty hard.”
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