Tuesday, May 21, 2019: OFA's Baldwin hurls second perfect game in showdown

   Leading off today: Ogdensburg Free Academy pitcher Ethan Baldwin picked a most opportune time to throw his second perfect game of the 2019 baseball season on Monday.

   Baldwin fanned 19 or the 21 Raiders he faced -- including striking out the last 15 in a row -- as OFA posted a 6-0 victory in handing Massena its first loss of the season. He needed just 83 pitches as the Blue Devils tied Massena for the NAC Central Division I title at 11-1.

   "I went to my curve and off-speed stuff a lot today and the wind really made the ball drop," said Baldwin, who will pitch for St. Lawrence University next year. :And my fastball was really moving well. Hayden Ives called a great game and we really work well together."

   Baldwin, who has allowed just one earned run this season, has thrown two perfect games, a five-inning no-hitter with 15 strikeouts, a one-hitter and a two-hitter this spring.

   All-state basketball: Erin Fox of Millbrook and Danielle Haskell of Franklinville have repeated as state players of the year in girls basketball, the New York State Sportswriters Association announced Tuesday.

   Fox, a junior forward, shared the Class C player of the year award with Sauquoit Valley senior guard Allison Moreau. Haskell, a junior guard, was selected in Class C.

   The NYSSWA's other players of the year are Aubrey Griffin of Ossining in Class AA, co-recipients Julia Hauer of Binghamton Seton Catholic and Alana Fursman of Pittsford Mendon in Class A, and Sara Pfeiffer of Olean in Class B.

   Griffin averaged 28.2 points, 10.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game in her senior season. Hauer averaged 16.9 points and 10.2 rebounds as a senior to finish with career totals of 1,371 and 1,243, respectively. Fursman averaged 16.8 points per game as a senior.

   After playing high school ball in Arizona last year, Pfeiffer returned to Olean and scored 41 or more points half a dozen times, including 63 on senior night. Fox averaged 21 points, 11 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per contest in her junior season. Moreau is heading to a soccer career at LeMoyne College after averaging 25.9 points and 10.1 rebounds on the court, and Haskell chimed in at 28 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists per game.

   Like Fox and Haskell, Griffin is a repeat first-team selection.

   Others repeating on the first team are Celeste Taylor of Long Island Lutheran in Class AA, Amari DeBerry of Williamsville South in Class A, Maddie Plank of Briarcliff in Class B, Graceann Bennett of Lake George in Class C and Madison McCormick of Heuvelton in Class D.

   Taylor made the first team for the third consecutive season. Griffin, who lost her sophomore season to a knee injury, made the first team for the third time in four years.

   The complete all-state teams for Classes AA and A are here. The complete all-state teams for Classes B, C and D are here.

   More baseball: Cregg Scherrer put on a memorable show at the plate Monday by finishing 4-for-4 with six runs batted in. Along the way he both hit for the cycle and belted a grand slam in Skaneateles' 11-9 victory over Mexico.

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    • Santino Rosso hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the eighth inning as Victor (10-9) scored a 6-5 win over Greece Athena (16-2), which was riding a 12-game winning streak.

   "Best feeling in the world," said Rosso, who also pitched four scoreless innings. "Just knowing that I did something good for my team felt really amazing."

   Girls golf: The CHSAA championship went to sudden death, with Kaitlyn Browne of St. Anthony's winning on the second extra hole after matching 9-over-par 79s with Victoria Dowling of Our Lady of Mercy Academy at Silver Lake Golf Course in Staten Island.

   Browne trailed by a stroke heading to the final hole in regulation and needed a birdie to keep her hopes alive.

   Each golfer double-bogeyed No. 17, the first playoff hole. At the 18th, Browne reached the green in three and tapped in for bogey to beat Dowling, who double-bogeyed.

   Dowling had finished second to Allison Amoruso of St. Anthony's in a playoff at the league championship last week.

   Perfect again: The Orchard Park boys tennis team finished its 11th straight undefeated season by pulling out a 3-2 win over Clarence. The Quakers have won 103 consecutive matches.

   Orchard Park coach Terry McMahon has 622 wins in 43 seasons.

   Catching up on recent news: Highland senior Eliz Fino had quite a week, breaking the NYSPHSAA single-season for goals in girls lacrosse and also breaking the Section 9 career record in that department.

   Fino scored 11 goals and had an assist Wednesday during a 15-9 win over New Paltz, that game her 144 for the year, breaking the mark of 138 by Carthage's Kate Ferris in 2009.

   Fino, who earlier in the season set the state record for goals in a game with 16, then posted 10 goals Saturday in a 16-15 loss to Cornwall in overtime. That gave her 387 in her career, breaking the sectional record of 389.

    • West Genesee edged Fayetteville-Manlius 4-3 in tennis on Wednesday, ending the Hornets' boys tennis winning streak at 287 matches. The F-M winning streak began in 1988.

   In 2014, West Genesee ended a 329-match winning streak by the Fayetteville-Manlius girls. The common denominator in ending the two streaks is Wildcats coach Joe Mannara.

   "I think the boys had realized that they had gotten better over the season and we thought we could hang in there with F-M," Mannara said. "We want to give F-M the respect for all of their success over the years. We didn't want to jump around and go crazy. Mark McGuigan is a great coach and we wanted to kind of treat it as any other match at the end of the season."

   West Genesee followed up by winning the Section 3 Class A championship on Saturday.

    • Tapestry Charter seventh-grader Jada Kenner continued her impressive debut season by tying a world-record for 12-year-olds over the weekend during the Eddy Games in Schenectady.

   Kenner finished in :23.72 en route to a victory in the 200 meters. She broke the meet record of :23.98 that Kyle Plante of Colonie had set in 2012.

   Kenner also won the 100 -- her :11.91 broke the meet record of "11.96 by Keyon Soley of Uniondale in 1997 -- and was the second leg of the Buffalo school's first-place 400 relay.

   "I am running against people that are a lot older than me, but I try to focus on myself," Kenner said. "I just try to drop my PR."

   Kenner had set the world indoor 300 record for 12-year-olds when she won the state championship earlier this year in :39.24.

   "Before this year, she was running in our middle school program, and you knew she was going to be good, but this year has gone beyond anything we could have imagined," Tapestry coach Dan Tryon said. "It's been quite a ride this year. It hasn't stopped. I hope it doesn't stop."

    • Westhill baseball coach Ted Klamm picked up his 300th career win with a 12-0 triumph against Jordan-Elbridge over the weekend.