Friday, May 29, 2015: McQuaid's Buholtz throws no-hitter in Sec. 5 final

   Leading off today: Senior lefty Henry Buholtz worked his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning to finish off a no-hitter Thursday as McQuaid defeated Rush-Henrietta 2-0 in the Section 5 Class AA baseball final at Frontier Field.

   Buholtz got the first nine outs of the game on strikeouts and fanned 16 in the game to advance the Knights to next weekend's NYSPHSAA quarterfinals.

   "Every kid dreams of pitching a big game at Frontier Field, as a senior, any year in high school," Buholtz told the Democrat and Chronicle. "It's just the biggest dream in high school."

   Said catcher Jeff Weber: "I've caught him for five years and I've never seen him on like he was tonight. He was hitting my glove every time. They weren't touching him at all."

   McQuaid's 2014 season ended with a 14-inning loss to Greece Athena in a semifinals, a setback that served as motivation since.

   "Whenever I called guys and said, 'Let's go hit,' no one ever said no," Buholtz said. "Everything all year was, 'Don't let that happen again.'"

   More drama: It's been a week of walk-offs on diamonds across the state, and the trend continued in the completion of a Section 1 Class B baseball semifinal.

   Albertus Magnus' Rob Ottaviano delivered a walk-off RBI double to give the Falcons a 5-4 win in nine innings over Valhalla. The game was suspended by darkness Wednesday with the score 4-4 in the top of the seventh.

   Girls lacrosse: Lancaster and Amherst secured their 10th Section 6 championships in 11 seasons.

   Lancaster defeated Frontier 12-8 in Class A. Senior Grace Gabriel scored five goals, including two during the game-closing 3-1 run, to down the Falcons for the fourth year in a row in a sectional final.

   In Class C, Amherst edged Lake Shore 13-10 as McKenna Rushford scored four goals and an assist to avenge a loss to the Eagles in the 2014 title game.

   "It feels amazing just to have the blue patch back," Rushford told The Buffalo News.

   She scored twice to give the Tigers an early lead and sparked a half-closing 3-0 run as her goal with 2:22 left broke a 5-5 tie.

   Softball reign ends: Lake Placid upended perennial Section 7 champion Crown Point 5-0 in the Class D softball semifinals.

   Senior Lizzy Bimonte slammed a two-run home run in the fifth inning to break a scoreless tie. Gillian McLean followed suit in the sixth with a long home run that gave the Blue Bombers a 4-0 advantage.

   Senior pitcher Carissa Kennedy scattered seven hits for the shutout.

   Crown Point had won the Class D championship the last nine years.

   More softball: Warsaw defeated Caledonia-Mumford 6-1 for the Section 5 Class C2 championship as Brianna Wagner hit a grand slam in the first inning and pitched a six-hitter.

NYSPHSAA boys lacrosse NYSPHSAA girls lacrosse NYSPHSAA baseball Past years' brackets

   Tennis finals set: Matt Gamble of Webster Schroeder will defend his NYSPHSAA singles title Saturday morning vs. Yuval Solomon of Plainview JFK at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

   In doubles, brothers Hope and Courage Crawford of Mamaroneck will take on Sean Mullins and Patrick Hannity of Cold Spring Harbor.

   Awards season begins: Niskayuna senior Garrett Whitley, a likely MLB first-round draft pick next month, has been named Gatorade's New York baseball player of the year.

   Whitley hit .356 with three home runs and 13 runs batted in and 24 runs scored. He also was successful in all 15 stolen-base attempts.

   Scary moment: Hartland (Mich.) pole vaulter Alex Lindahl is lucky to be alive after suffering a serious injury Tuesday during a meet.

   Lindahl's pole snapped after he planted and went airborne, and half the pole impaled his orbital bone, the Detroit Free-Press reported.

   Lindahl was rushed to a hospital for emergency surgery, during which doctors repaired most of the damage. "It's whether or not his vision will fully be back to normal is the question," Hartland AD Jason Reck told the paper.

   The injury did not deterred Lindahl, who tweeted that his graduation party was still on.

   Taking a break: Former Bronxville prodigy Mary Cain, who became a national sensation by setting five American junior records in distance running, has left Oregon and returned home to train. Nike Oregon Project coach Alberto Salazar said Cain remains in communication with him and is still a member of the Project, though she did not make a recent team trip to altitude in Utah and is skipping the Prefontaine Classic this weekend.

   Cain, 19, a professional runner and University of Portland freshman, has been in a major slump since early in the indoor season. She went from winning the 2014 women's Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games to fading badly and finishing eighth this past February. At a meet in Los Angeles on May 14, she was 11th out of 12 in her 1,500-meter heat.