Leading off today: Sayville senior Julie MacDonell knocked her approach iron at No. 18 to within four feet of the pin and tapped in for a birdie to wrap up the NYSPHSAA girls golf championship yesterday at SUNY Delhi.

   She shot her second consecutive one-over-par 73 to finish the two-day event at 146, two strokes better than two-time defending champion Suzie Lee (75-73--148) of Commack.

   The Harvard-bound MacDonell took the lead with a par at No. 17 while Lee three-putted for a bogey, then wrapped it up against the four-time Section 11 champ with the superb approach on the final hole.

   "It was surreal," MacDonell told Newsday. "It was a really good way to end with a birdie and with my coaches and family all around."

   Victoria Snak of Smithtown West followed her opening 82 with a tournament-best 72 to tie for third and help the Suffolk County delegation win team honors by a 56-stroke margin. The team's 1,076 was the lowest score in the five-year history of the NYSPHSAA event.

   Miller defends: Brewster senior Mike Miller earned his second straight boys Federation golf title by shooting an even-par 71 on the Bethpage Black course that hosted the men's U.S. Open in 2002 and 2009.

   "It's an honor to be called the best of the best for a second straight year," the Penn State recruit told The Journal News.    Miller admitted to being mildly awe-struck on the early holes. "I actually started out pretty rough because I was just soaking it all in," said Miller, who was second at the NYSPHSAA championships the previous weekend. "On the first hole, I was just looking around. It was crazy, walking down the fairway, hitting shots where the pros did, but I ended up refocusing around the fifth hole."

   Miller's birdies at the 16th and 17th holes gave him breathing room, and he finished three strokes ahead of Pittsford Mendon's Gavin Hall.

   "It was just one of those days where I didn't get the right breaks or I didn't make a putt at the right time and

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you need those breaks to win a golf tournament," Hall told the Democrat and Chronicle.

   Looking ahead: The Fort Ann baseball team's NYSPHSAA Class D championship over the weekend may be a sign of things to come.

   Freshman and third-year varsity player Joe Foran homered in the fifth inning in Saturday's 6-5 victory over Bolivar-Richburg, but he's hardly the only precocious player on the roster. Fort Ann started two freshmen, three sophomores, and two juniors down the stretch this season.

   "I love having pressure. I love coming up big," Foran told The Post-Star. "I want to be the guy in the spot when you gotta have a hit."

   Welcome to the bigs: At a minimum, Chris "Cito" Culver is four or five years away from wearing Yankees pinstripes in the big leagues.

   However, the Irondequoit shortstop is getting his first taste of Major League Baseball's fiercest rivalry before even signing his first pro baseball contract after being selected with the final pick of the first round last week by the Yankees.

   Do a search for CitoCulver.com and you discover that the domain has been purchased, though the owner has not developed the site as of yet.

   Dig a little deeper and you find out that the domain was snapped up last week just hours after the draft by Pueblo, Colo., resident Vern Marchand, whose e-mail address (red7sox7fan@aim.com) and Facebook page bio undeniably identify him as a fan of ... that's right, the Boston Red Sox.

   Yep, the rivalry is definitely still on.