Friday, April 13, 2018: Minisink Valley pitcher strikes out 26

   Leading off today: Minisink Valley senior Alayna Savaglio struck out 26 Warwick batters Thursday to highlight an 2-0 softball victory in 11 innings.

   Savaglio, who finished with a three-hitter, struck out 10 straight batters after Brittany Tagg's leadoff double and a walk to Michaela Calandra to start the first inning. She struck out three batters in the first, second, third, fifth, seventh and eighth innings.

   "I've seen her dominate but never like that," Minisink Valley coach Bruce Guyette said. "She was just doing every right and not having to make a lot of adjustments. It was mostly the rise ball, spotting fastballs and a couple of changeups. She just dominated."

   Saviglio has fanned 45 batters in 24 innings this season.

   The NYSPHSAA record for strikeouts in a game is believed to be 28 by Jasmine Ennabe of Carmel in a 2014 game that went 13 innings. Chelsea Hawks of Shoreham-Wading River notched 27 K's in another 13-inning game in 2013, a figure matched in 14 innings by Adirondack's Arielle Kranbuhl in 14 innings in 2017.

   OP picks replacement: The Orchard Park school board approved Craig Dana as the new varsity football coach on Tuesday.

   Dana takes over for coach Gene Tundo, who stepped down after 24 seasons, 14 Section 6 crowns and NYSPHSAA Class AA championships in 2008 and 2011. He has been the Quakers' defensive coordinator since 2012.

   College decisions: Penfield senior Frankie Gissendanner, a four-time state champion, will continue his wrestling career at Rider.

   Gissendanner, who is likely to redshirt as a freshman, is projected to wrestle at 141 or 149 pounds.

   "We're going to see how I do at the beginning of the year wrestling unattached in open tournaments," Gissendanner said. "If I do really well, they are going to pull the redshirt. We'll just see how I do over the next couple of months."

   "It's a very good school," Penfield coach John Leone said. "Hopefully, he becomes an NCAA champion, but he'll have a world-class education, and that's what it's all about."

    • Elijah Buchanan, first-team all-state in Class AA for Mount St. Michael a year ago, will play for Manhattan College next season. Buchanan is completing a post-graduate year at Woodstock Academy in Connecticut.

ADVERTISEMENT

   On the move: Former Christ the King guard Sydney Zambrotta has received her release from Louisville after averaging 3.4 points in 10.4 minutes a game during her sophomore season.

   Zambrotta was first-team all-state as a senior in 2016.

   A long time in the making: Cardinal O'Hara's 65-49 win over Canisius in a boys track and field meet Wednesday may have been the school's first triumph against the Crusaders in any sport in a quarter of a century, retired AD Angelo Sciandra told The Buffalo News.

   More reading material: Weather was already a popular topic in New York high school sports circles this month even before forecasters started issuing warnings Thursday that parts of Upstate are at risk for freezing rain and high winds this weekend, with the added bonus of lakeshore flooding and power outages also potentially in the cards.

   My weekly column for PressConnects.com was already in the works well before the latest severe weather warnings. In somewhat of a continuation of a blog I posted April 2, I wrote about the effect on spring sports.

   As part of my research, I called Massena AD Gavin Regan, who was helpful in sharing the perspective from one of the northern-most school districts in the state.

   In the course of our discussion, I learned that Regan has a very interesting second job. Regan, who is finishing up his second year as AD, is also the chairman of USA Hockey's international council, which has oversight responsibilities for all U.S. national teams in the sport.

   That means he's heavily involved in planning and preparations for U.S. participation in major events including the Olympics and the upcoming IIHF Men's World Championships scheduled for May 4-20 in Copenhagen and Herning, Denmark.

   Responsibilities include appointing the coaching staffs and assisting in shaping the rosters. Obviously, he couldn't dish confidential information, but Regan did point out some of the subtle complexities associated with the job. For instance, there is not a salary cap per se but USA Hockey does have to consider the value of players' pro contracts when assembling a roster because they have to purchase insurance that guarantees those contracts in the event of serious injury.

   It was an interesting conversation and gave me the idea to start looking around for other coaches and ADs with interesting second jobs outside the world of high school sports. I'd be interested in hearing from you at jmoriello@yahoo.com if you know of any candidates.