Two Medina High players, Emanuel Taylor and Tyler Chinn, were members of the Western New York Rebels basketball team which recently captured the Division 2 national AAU championship at the ESPN Complex in Orlando, Florida.

The Rebels won eight straight games at the tournament over teams from Georgia, Florida, Virginia, Vertmont, New York and Massachusets capped off by a 43-38 victory over the Boo Williams ’21 squad from Virginia in the championship game.

The Rebels won a total of 10 tournaments on the season.

Contributed Photo – Maria Elsenheimer

Albion High graduate Maria Elsenheimer is prepping for her senior soccer season at Iona College.

A midfielder, she is majoring in Psychology and last year earned Mid Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) All-Academic team honors.

A three time first team Niagara-Orleans League selection during her scholastic days at Albion, she had a career total of 71 goals and 31 assists for the Purple Eagles.

BATAVIA – There are 18 games left in the New York-Penn League season, but there was a playoff atmosphere at Dwyer Stadium Wednesday night.

With the West Virginia Black Bears coming in just 1.5 games behind Batavia, the managers were stealing bases, making pitching changes and even the players were involved in a stand-off that lasted over three hours.

In the end, the Batavia Muckdogs improved to 34-24 with an 11-5 win over West Virginia (31-26).

The Muckdogs trailed, 3-1 in the fourth when Nic Ready blasted a home run deep over the left field fence to cut the lead to 3-2. Ready has seven home runs on the season and went 3-for-4 with 4 RBI’s and his 25th double of the season.

A 2019 Miami Marlins draft pick in the 23rd round out of the Air Force Academy, has 34 RBI’s on the season.

Batavia shortstop Dalvy Rosario had it best offensive night of the season, going 3-for-4 with two doubles, 2 RBI’s and scored two runs as well as turning two double plays with Jack Strunc.

J.D. Orr, who leads the NYPL in hitting with a .381 average stole his 24th base of the season and despite just one hit on the night scored four runs. Strunc had two hits and scored twice.

Troy Johnston, a 17th round pick of the Marlins out of Gonzaga was 2-for-4 with two runs, 2 RBI’s and a walk. He hit his 10th double of the season.

Milton Smith II is hitting .327 after going 2-for-4.

The crowd noticed a fun stand off between Batavia’s Harrison Dinicola and West Virginia’s Ryan Haug. The two held their hats over their hearts during the national anthem, then players from both teams picked them up like a statue and put them standing in the same position on the bench. During each inning, the players were decorated by Gatorade cups and never moved from the position for over three and a half hours.

When Haug finally had to leave the dugout after the game to catch the bus, Dinicola was the victor, touching off a wild celebration by the players including a water and Gatorade bath.

The Muckdogs went over 30,000 fans on the season, which is over 3,000 more than all of 2018 with 10 home games remaining.

Andrew Miller started and struck out four in 4.1 innings giving up three runs. With runners on in the fifth, M.D. Johnson came in and retired the only two batters he faced to pick up his first win of the season. At 1-0, Johnson has pitched 12.2 innings with 16 strikeouts.

Bryan Hoeing earned his third hold throwing two innings with two strikeouts, no walks, no runs and just two hits.

Brock Love then closed it with three strikeouts in the last two innings.

Tonight is First Responders Night as all first responders receive two free general admission tickets.

Contributed Photo – The Batavia defense held Mahoning Valley to one run into the ninth but couldn’t put the game away in a 5-0 loss Monday. Jack Strunc tags out a Scrapper baserunner.

BATAVIA – As the race for the New York-Penn League Pinckney Division gets tighter, the Batavia Muckdogs have four crucial home games this week.

Batavia (33-24) fell to Mahoning Valley, 5-0 on Monday night as second place West Virginia  (30-25) picked up a win to move two games out of first.

The lead was just 1-0 in the ninth as the pitching staff held Mahoning Vally in check.

Edgar Martinez who suffered the hard-luck loss, gave up one run in six innings, striking out one without a walk. He is 2-3 and his ERA dropped to 2.88

Easton Lucas had a strong seventh and finished with four strikeouts in two innings.

At the plate for Batavia, Dustin Skelton, Andrew Turner, Julian Infante, Nic Ready, Troy Johnston and Milton Smith II (stolen bases, his 17th on the season) all had hits, but the Muckdogs stranded all seven runners.

Batavia hotss Mahoning Valley this evening and then on Wednesday second-place West Virginia comes to town for three games.

Contributed Photo – Chris Goyette

Chris Goyette, who will be a senior at Medina High this fall, hurled the Niagara Thunderwolves to a 3-0 victory over the Zoom Baseball Academy in the Gold Bracket championship game of the 17/18U Diamond Nation Summer Finale tournament in New Jersey Saturday.

Goyette hurled a 4 hitter and struck out 10 to earn the Gold Bracket’s Most Valuable Player award.

He got out of a one out bases loaded jam in the fifth inning with a strikeout and a ground out to shortstop Liam Ward, who will be a senior at Albion this fall.

The Thunderwolves three runs came in the sixth inning aided by a sacrifice bunt by Ward and an RBI triple by Roy-Hart’s Gavyn Boyle.

Contributed Photo –  Batavia manager Tom Lawless called on Joey Steele after an injury and the pitcher threw 2.2 scoreless innings for the save. Steele has not give-up a run in 13.1 innings this season and just one walk with 22 strikeouts. Catcher Michael Hernandez called the shutout, handling all four pitchers in the win.

BATAVIA – Just a day ago, the Batavia Muckdogs were in danger of losing the lead in the New York-Penn League Pinckney Division.

However, back home at Dwyer Stadium, the Batavia pitching staff and clutch hitting led the Muckdogs to a 5-0 shutout of Mahoning Valley Sunday.

With the win and a West Virginia loss, Batavia (33-23) now has a 3.0 lead in the division.

Julio Frias improved to 4-2 wth the win, throwing five shutout innings with two strikeouts and one walk.

Jonaiker Villalobos struck out two in a scoreless sixth for his second hold and Geremy Galindez earned his second hold, but left the game with with discomfort after a pitch.

Joey Steele, the 30th round draft pick this year of the Miami Marlins who has a perfect 0.00 ERA, was called to the mound in the seventh with one out. With a few minutes to throw and stretch, he went out and threw 2.2 innings of one-hit, shutout ball with four strikeouts and no walks for his first save.

Steele has now thrown 13.2 innings with 22 strikeouts, no runs allowed, 11 hits, one walk and a 0.88 WHIP to go along with his 0.00 ERA.

“That was huge of Joe, he really picked up the bull pen, went 2.2 innings … that was big time of him,” said Batavia catcher and Miami native Michael Hernandez. “We really needed that.”

Hernandez not only handled the four pitchers for a shutout but had a basest and scored a run.

“I’m just taking it one pitch at time and trying to hit the ball hard,” said Hernandez. “We are in first place, there is no better feeling than winning. It’s always a great day when you get a shut out, that means it’s a combination of defense and pitching … it was a great day for us Muckdogs.”

At the plate, J.D. Orr was close to an inside-the-park homer when his sharply hit single to right skipped off the glove of an outfielder to the fence. He raced around the bases, scoring three runs on the play.

Orr finished 2-for-4 with two runs, his 13th RBI and increased his NYPL leading average to .384.

Nic Ready had two hits and scored a run while Sean Reynolds ripped a RBI single and Jack Strunc had a single and scored.

Not only did West Virginia (29-25) lose, but State College (27-28) in third place lost and Mahoning Valley (25-30) is in fourth.

The Muckdogs have five game left in this home stand, taking on Mahoning Valley Monday and Tuesday with games at 7:05 p.m. all week.