Thursday, April 14, 2016: Bath pitcher throws second no-hitter of season

   Leading off today: Bath pitcher Makayla Brzezinski threw her second no-hitter of the young softball season Wednesday, striking out 14 batters over eight innings in a 1-0 win over Livonia.

   Brzezinski, a senior who also has a one-hitter to her credit this season, walked one batter.

   Kyra Wilson's two-out single in the bottom of the eighth scored Katie Burg with the game's only run.

   Belge solid in loss: Syracuse Henninger senior Jeff Belge was solid on the mound Wednesday in his season debut despite a lopsided loss.

   Pitching for the first time since suffering an eye injury last summer, the highly regarded pro prospect struck out 10 Liverpool batters and surrendered one hit in four innings while reaching 96 mph with his fastball. The Warriors put four unearned runs on the board against Belge, who walked four and hit a batter and went on to rout Syracuse 15-0.

   "To say we beat Belge is a misrepresentation," Liverpool coach Fred Terzini told Syracuse.com. "I think our team beat their team. He's a hell of a pitcher."

   Said Belge: "I know I can do better. I will do better as the season goes on. But I'm happy with today."

   Liverpool junior left-hander Jeff Destefano struck out eight, surrendered four hits and walked three in five innings.

   Historic win: Lewiston-Porter, which started its girls track and field program in 1980, finally scored its first victory over Lockport by edging the Lions 84-67. Emily Oliverio won the 200 meters, finished second in the 100 and anchored the triumphant 400 relay.

   Emotional win: White Plains defeated New Rochelle 11-6 in its first girls lacrosse game since the death of coach Mike Leone, 49, who passed away last Thursday of a rare blood disorder.

   Junior Kali Peeples scored the games first three goals to set the tone for the Tigers.

   "He was always like, 'Good job, Peeps!' That would always motivate me," Peeples told The Journal News. "I really miss that on the sidelines. Those first three goals were for coach."

   Leone, who has stepped down before the start of the season, took over the lacrosse team in 2012 and guided the Tigers to a 31-19-5 record.

   A moment of silence was observed before the game.

   "You have an emotional situation, we all lean on each other," said Gabe Robles, Leone's longtime assistant who has taken over the head coaching duties. "They lean on each other, they lean on me, I lean on them. That's the only way you get through situations like this."

   Milestone: Sammy Mueller scored seven goals, including the 200th of her career, in Hackley's 15-3 lacrosse win vs. Fieldston. Mueller, who also had an assist, became the second player in program history to reach the 200 goals mark.

   Semi-drastic career change: Nino Pilato is making the leap from coaches girls at a public school to boys at a private school, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.

   Pilato, 41, had coached the Greece Odyssey girls soccer

team for 17 seasons, building the Leopards into one of Section 5's best Class B programs. This fall, he'll coach the boys team at McQuaid. Pilato replaces Matthew McConnochie, who coached McQuaid to a 12-3-2 record in 2015.

   Pilato's Odyssey teams won eight Section 5 championships and a 2012 NYSPHSAA championship.

   "It was just something that came up. I put my name in the hat and I wanted to challenge myself on the other side, the boys side. I wanted to see what I could do," Pilato told the paper.

   More on the coaching front: I missed the note in February that North Rockland boys basketball coach Chris Roff has retired after 29 seasons. Tom Doherty points out that Roff (467-148) exits as the winningest boys basketball coach in Rockland County history.

   By the way, NYSSWA editor Neil Kerr has updated our list of all-time leaders in boys basketball coaching wins. We'll be posting the updates in the next few days after chasing down one or two leads on 400-game winners who've escaped our notice.

   NCAA issue: If you've been hearing discussion this week about the NCAA's abrupt ban of college football coaches' satellite camps but not quite understanding what the fuss is about, take a couple of minutes to read what Stewart Mandel of FOXSports.com wrote this week.

   The ban is exceptionally bad for New York prospects because it will substantially limit the "one-stop shopping" sort of contact high school players used to enjoy by attending just one or two summer camps.

   In simple terms, coaches from Mid-American Conference schools will no longer be able to work at the popular camps operated by the Ohio State football staff. Realistically, perhaps 2 or 3 percent of players attending that camp ever have a chance of being recruited by the Buckeyes. But by attending, lower-level Division I talents had the opportunity to meet and learn from coaches from Bowling Green, Toledo, Akron, etc.

   New York so seldom sends players to schools in the so-called Power 5 conferences. Taking away opportunities to catch the eye of multiple mid-majors all at once and perhaps be recruited by some of them is a bad development.

   As Mandel wrote, the sudden NCAA ban "provided a telling window into the disconnect between those enacting the rules and those actually affected by the rules."