Here are the top 10 topics for the May 18 edition of the Inside High School Sports Show.
1. This week the Section III boys lacrosse playoffs start, and there’s clear favorites in every class. Baldwinsville will be tough to catch in Class A, having gained more confidence last Thursday by rallying from a four-goal second-half deficit to complete a regular-season sweep of West Genesee. The Wildcats do meet Liverpool this week before the playoff brackets are revealed. Yet it was F-M who won the SCAC Metro division regular-season title, because unlike B’ville it swept its two games with Liverpool, one of them a tense 6-5 decision last week before it clinched the league with a 19-5 romp over C-NS, all this before the Hornets dip down to Class B once the sectional tournament starts.
2. Bouncing back from its lone defeat of the season to Fairport, J-D won three times last week, including a tough 7-6 win over its neighbors from F-M, but in Class C the Red Rams have plenty of good company around them, especially CBA, who has risen to no. 2 in the state rankings with a 13-2 record, including an impressive win last week over Westhill. In Class D, Skaneateles reached the top of the state rankings with its recent hot play and is at 12-2 overall, with Marcellus at no. 4 and General Brown at no. 7. Class D is the one class sure to have sectional quarterfinal games on Saturday afternoon, the playoff moved up because there are two regional games following the sectional finals.
3. When the Section III girls lacrosse playoff brackets are announced later this week, Baldwinsville is certain to be the top seed in Class A, fitting since the Bees have sat atop the state rankings for a month and just completed a sweep of main challenger West Genesee, beating them 15-7 last Thursday after a close call with the Wildcats the first time around. CBA, the reigning state champion, are the other main threat, though it’s not quite the same team as a year ago. F-M is still a solid favorite in Class B, sitting at no. 6 in the state rankings despite close defeats to J-D and Long Island’s Sacred Heart in the last two weeks, while Auburn, at 12-3, has climbed to no. 10 in the state rankings and is ready to challenge the Hornets again.
4. Bent on adding another state championship to the four it has already won, the Skaneateles girls lacrosse team backed up its no. 3 state Class D ranking with a 17-6 romp over a main challenger, Marcellus, last Friday night, and will challenge F-M in Tuesday’s regular-season finale as Westhill, who nearly beat the Lakers in early April, sits at no. 3 in those state rankings. J-D continues to sit in the anchor position pursuing a third consecutive Class C sectional title, the Red Rams’ 14-1 record the best of any team in Central New York and putting them at no. 4 in the state rankings. Most teams will rest later this week and head into their respective Section III tournaments early next week with quarterfinal and semifinal games.
5. When it hasn’t been raining, there’s a lot going on in high school softball. Even Class AA front-runner C-NS was made vulnerable with a 14-8 defeat to Baldwinsville while its best pitcher rested, while J-D and its pitching ace, Shayna Myshrall, has climbed to 12-1 and no. 6 in the state Class A rankings, with Whitesboro and Auburn also state-ranked. Oneida is sitting at 13-1 and is up to no. 4 in the state in Class B, while Solvay’s Caitlin McCann hit four home runs last week, including an eighth-inning home run that cooled down state-ranked Marcellus 6-5, and two teams remain unbeaten – South Jefferson at 13-0, Cazenovia at 10-0. Also, LaFargeville is 12-0 and has moved up to no. 4 in the state in Class D.
6. In high school baseball, there isn’t a ton of clarity with two weeks left in the regular season. Class AA has seen West Genesee play three extra-inning games last week – one against Baldwinsville that got stopped by darkness after 12 innings, but also an eight-inning win over the Bees and a 10-inning win over Liverpool. Whitesboro and CBA have both climbed into the state Class A top 10, with Canastota and Holland Patent doing the same in Class B. One side is still undefeated – Oriskany, who entered this week having gone through 13 times unscathed and climbed to no. 4 in the state Class C rankings. Thousand Islands is close behind them at no. 8 and Lyme and Fabius-Pompey are in the state Class D top 10.
7. This is the week where league track and field championships get underway. It follows a week where, in girls track, Liverpool swept Baldwinsville and C-NS in the SCAC Metro division and Central Square claimed top honors in its first-place clash with ESM, while Westhill, Cazenovia and Tully took their respective OHSL divisions. F-M used its domiannce in distance races to top C-NS and other top sides in the John Arcaro Classic at Baldwinsville, while at the Oneida Invitational Utica Proctor claimed the overall title over 19 other teams, showing it will have a say in the sectional Class AA meet next week. Also, there was Oswego claiming first place in the Weedsport Invitational over Hannibal.
8. In boys track and field, the league championship meets followed last week’s wrap-up of regular-season action. C-NS finished ahead of both Baldwinsville and Liverpool in their three-team meet as Central Square prevailed in its SCAC Empire meet with J-D and ESM. Cazenovia completed an OHSL Liberty National division sweep, with CBA and Chittenango also taking regular-season honors. Baldwinsville tied Fairport for first place at the Bees’ own John Arcaro Classic on Friday, just as Hannibal got an impressive victory in the Weedsport Invitational and Utica Proctor’s fast-rising team won the Oneida Invitational to match what its female counterparts did and give it momentum before the Tri-Valley League championships.
9. We are also entering the post-season in boys tennis, this after a modified regular season affected as much as any by the rainy weather. Sectional team tournaments will get followed by individual qualifiers for the state tournament at month’s end at the USTA National Tennis Center. In girls golf, they hold the OHSL championships this week at Woodcrest, where CBA might be the front-runners after sweeping past regular-season foes. There’s still some SCAC Empire division tournaments left after earlier events had J-D finishing ahead of Oswego and Auburn, while F-M’s girls still set the pace in the SCAC Metro division after two close matches against Liverpool, who is led by the Avotins sisters.
10. As usual, the NCAA lacrosse tournaments are full of local connections, even if SU’s men were knocked out by Loyola and Le Moyne’s top-ranked women suffered a stunning triple-OT quarterfinal defeat to Adelphi. There’s SU’s women’s team, with plenty of local stars, facing Northwestern in the quarterfinals. More noticeably, there’s Princeton reaching the women’s quarterfinals led by Skaneateles great Kyla Sears. And Cazenovia has four different alumni alive in the men’s tournament, ranging from Penn State’s top-ranked, high-flying team with T.J. Connellan and Cole Willard, to P.J. Brown scoring key goals for Loyola and Thomas Bragg part of Yale’s attempt to repeat as national champions.
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