Pick Up Sticks
Sullivan West Gets The Big Hits To Outscore Liberty In Division IV Encounter As Bulldogs Rack Up Second League Win Following Vanquishing Of O’Neill
Sullivan West 13, Liberty 10
By RICHARD A. ROSS
The Westies win (clockwise): Sullivan West's Hannah Schwatz fires a strike and then shows her power with a bases-clearing triple. Liberty's Olivia Baum also had a bases clearing hit. Liberty's Rachel Bayer hurls a strike. Sullivan West's Katie Taylor slides under a tag from Liberty catcher Justice Dingevan. Liberty's Ashley Wallgren is safe at second as Bethanii Padu tries to tag her out. Sullivan West's Victoria Haas is safe at home.
JEFFERSONVILLE, NY- Fall, winter or spring, when it comes to Sullivan West versus Liberty, the name of the game is rivalry and the urgency for each team to advance its cause at the expense of the other never diminishes.
To be sure while the heated clashes of soccer, football and basketball between teams from the neighboring schools are far more strident, the trials and tribulations on the diamond are equally important in their own right as each team knows that a sectional berth down the line may very well hinge on the outcome.
One day after Sullivan West’s 6-1 league win over O’Neill, the Lady Bulldogs looked to run their winning streak to four in a row as they got set to host Liberty. The pitching duel featured Sullivan West fireballer Hannah Schwatz vs. Liberty’s Rachel Bayer. As the day would soon evince, both teams would have good success with their bats as hits aplenty were scattered about.
In the early going it seemed as if Sullivan West’s fielding yips were going to be its undoing. In the first inning four leather miscues contributed to Liberty’s 2-0 early lead as Olivia Baum and Katie Robisch knocked in runs.
The Lady Westies got one of those back in the bottom of the first as Bethanii Padu led off with a double, stole third and scored off a fielder’s choice hit by Emma Seidl.
Neither team scored in the second and Liberty also failed to register a run in the top of the third. That quiet was soon replaced by the Lady Bulldogs’ breakout with four runs. Victoria Haas reached on single and advanced on a passed ball. Padu singled and Marianne Durkin put down a perfect bunt to load the bases with no outs. A fielder’s choice off the bat of Seidl allowed one run to score.
Schwatz walked to load them up again before Katie Taylor batted in the second run with a single. A ground out by Brittany Milk and a single by Carly Grishaber completed the inning’s outpouring as Sullivan West now led 5-2.
Liberty answered back with four runs in the top of the fourth as Genesis Suarez had an RBI single and Baum cleared the bases with a booming double up the middle as Liberty assumed a 6-5 lead.
Bayer’s pitching was no problem for Sullivan West which continued to swing the bats with authority. With bases loaded and one out, Schwatz nearly hit one out of the park as she cleared the bases with a booming double which put Sullivan West back on top 8-6.
Neither team scored in the fifth but Liberty tied it up in the top of the sixth with RBI’s from Justice Dingevan and a run-scoring double off the bat of Robisch. Coach Matt Stoddard knew his girls had to hold the line against Sullivan West in the bottom of the frame if they were going to have a chance to record their second win of the season.
But once again it was Padu that rose to the occasion with a lead off double. She stole second and soon scored to give the Lady Bulldogs the lead they would never again relinquish. RBI singles from Schwatz, Taylor, Grishaber and Katie Slater put up a five spot in the inning for the 13-8 lead. Liberty scored twice in the top of the seventh but fell short 13-10.
Sullivan West improved to 4-3 (2-O OCIAA), while Liberty fell to 1-4 (0-1 OCIAA).
“They really hit the ball well today,” said Stoddard who wasn’t surprised after scouting the O’Neill game the day before.
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Fast Start
Monticello Downs Short-Handed Liberty For Third Straight Win In Young Season; Lady Indians Come Alive In Fourth Quarter On A Night When Indians’ Shots Just Wouldn’t Fall
Monticello 46, Liberty 23
By RICHARD A. ROSS
Scenes from Monticello's 46-23 non-league win over Liberty (clockwise): Monticello freshman Lena Episalla goes up for a shot and is fouled. She had nine rebounds in the game. Liberty's Tea Williams is hemmed in by Monticello's Shamira Moore and Zaquia Revell. Revell had ten steals and Moore had seven. Liberty's Justice Dingevan fires up a three-pointer. She canned two of them in the final quarter. She is defended by Monticello's Lena Episalla. Liberty's Olivia Baum scores the first points for the Lady Indians midway through the second quarter. Baum ended up with a team-high 17 on the night. The 2011-12 Monticello Lady Panthers. Monticello junior Yadira Montes cans a free throw. The Monties need a lot of work from the line as they converted just 31.8 percent from the stripe.
MONTICELLO, NY—When it comes to school size, Monticello and Liberty are the bigs in Sullivan County. As such, their encounters with one another, though always of a non-league variety, have a special allure even if one or both teams is struggling as has been the case in recent years.
But it’s a new season now and the Lady Panthers as well as the Lady Indians are fielding teams that are a blend of experienced players along with a cadre of youngsters who are new to the varsity realm.
Coming into the Pit in Monticello is always a challenge for Liberty teams but on this December 13 night, Coach Beth Quatrale knew it would be even more daunting without three of her key starters in NIkole Snyder, Selena Vargas and Katie Giarratano all missing in action for a variety of reasons. That would leave veterans Olivia Baum and Justice Dingevan to carry the load and as it turned out, they would be the only two players to score on the night as Baum would post 17 to Dingevan’s pair of treys.
Liberty struggled mightily early on as it went scoreless throughout the first quarter and halfway through the second when Baum finally converted a steal into a layup. She’d go on to score two more buckets in the second stanza to provide Liberty with six points by halftime to Monticellos’s 23. The Lady Panthers led 8-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Four of those first quarter points came from junior standout Shamira Moore. The Lady Monties also got buckets from junior Arianna Decosta and freshman Yamilersy Reyes. Moore added a pair of free throws in the second quarter as part of Monticello’s seven-point output. Senior Zequia Revell posted her lone basket and Monticello benefited from two free throws from Yadira Montes and one from Yami Reyes.
Both teams had trouble converting shots as well as taking care of the basketball. Turnovers abounded as errant passes were picked off both ways giving both Quatrale and Monticello Coach Karen Atack plenty to concentrate on in upcoming practices.
Moore was the big difference in this game as she evinced outstanding play at both ends of the floor. In the third quarter she netted 14 points. Her only issue was her lackluster free throw shooting as she canned only two-for-11 from the stripe. To their credit, Liberty held her scoreless in the final frame.
Decosta was Monticello’s other major weapon. She scored 11 points on the night, seven of which came in the fourth quarter and included the Monties’ lone trey of the game.
As for Liberty, were it not for Baum’s relentless pursuit, even in the face of early struggles, the final outcome could have been far worse. Monticello’s fourth quarter defensive laxity that featured players out of positions and at times an uncontested path to the basket for Baum, allowed her to catch fire. Needless to say, Atack was not pleased with that aspect of the game.
Monticello improved to 3-0 adding this victory to a pair of commanding wins over struggling Family. The Lady Monties will test their early season mettle against winless Sullivan West on the Lady Bulldogs home court debut on December 14. Sullivan West scouted this game to get a preview of the Lady Monties and of course Division IV rival Liberty which fell to 1-2. Its lone win came against S.S. Seward in the Spartan Invitational Tournament. They lost the title game to Goshen.
Quatrale was upbeat about her team’s efforts despite the outcome. “I thought the biggest difference was that my team was playing relaxed in the fourth quarter. It’s tough when the ball won’t go in the basket, but if you force it, it still won’t go in. As I told my team, I can’t be upset with a game like that when I know that every girl on the court was giving 100 percent. The heart was there, the ball just wasn’t falling.
Liberty hosts Port Jervis for its home opener on December 15. It’s next game will come after the New Year. With three starters not here tonight, it gave younger girls a chance to step up and show that they really deserve to be on the court. There were few mental mistakes. We were where we were supposed to be. It’s just a case of putting the ball in the basket now,” she concluded.
Atack is certainly pleased with her team’s 3-0 start. “We’ll take it,’ she said while emphasizing the things that need a lot of work if the success is to continue against far tougher teams. The Lady Monties host Cornwall on December 16 and the type of play they evinced in this game won’t fly against the Lady Dragons.
“We realize we played a weakened team tonight,” said Atack referencing the fact that Liberty was missing key players. “If we don’t take care of the ball we know what is going to happen. We still have a lot of things we have to iron out. We have a young team. They’re willing to work and they never give up. The hustle is there but we just made a lot of errors.
Rebounding was not one of the problems. Moore led the team with 17 boards and Revell had 12. Freshman guard Lena Episalla had nine rebounds. Revell had 10 steals and Moore had seven.” Atack credited Moore and Revell with playing an excellent game.
“We need to have better leadership. If I don’t call it out, no one is presently calling it out on the court. We have a lot more talent than we’ve had in the recent past but it’s not tamed yet,” she noted. “We’re having a problem with getting five people to do what they’re supposed to do at the same time.
Monticello’s three win start constitutes half of its total season victory total from last year. But Atack, ever conscious of what it takes to win against tough opponents will not let her team sit back on their early season laurels. For one thing Monticello was a woeful seven-for 22 from the line (31.8%).
“We have a really young team,” added Atack who was missing junior tall tree Nyasia Blakney for this outing. With only one senior in Revell, the squad goes to war with five juniors in Decosta, Moore, Yadira Montes, Blakney and Amber Grobusch. Three sophomores include Quasia Walker, Latise Sanders and Deanna Snowden, along with freshmen Shandell Jones, Yami Reyes and Lena Episalla.
Liberty’s team on this night was comprised of Rachel Bayer, Zaira Pabon, Erin Kinne, Cindy Fuentes, Stephanie Heisler, Olivia Baum, Amanda Bertholf, Justice Dingevan, Kelly Santos, Brittany Roa and Tea Williams.
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Open Fire
Basketball Action Ignites At Chester’s Sixth Annual Hambletonian Classic and S.S. Seward’s Spartan Invitational Tournaments; Chester Girls and Fallsburg Boys Advance To Finals; Seward Downs Liberty In Consolation Game Of Spartan Tourney Won By Millbrook
Girls: Chester 42, Fallsburg 23; Eldred 32, Sullivan West 22; Liberty 28, S.S. Seward 23
Boys: Fallsburg 61, Chester 47; S.S. Seward 55, Liberty 39
By RICHARD A. ROSS
Scenes from a pair of vibrant tournament venues. Left side clockwise: Chester's Lawrence Young looks to dribble around Fallsburg's Rakkir Watson in the early going. Fallsburg's Michael Robinson sinks a free throw as part of his 15-point contribution to the Comets' win over Chester. Fallsburg players gather in a pre-game spirited ritual. Fallsburg's Paige Seletsky rises up for two points. Chester's Mardelle Jean dribbles as she is defended by Fallsburg's Celia Garcia. Right Side clockwise: Sewards Shawn Howells and Anthony Bailey receive the plaque for the Spartans' third place in the tournament. Liberty's Joe Franke rises to the rim. Seward guard Kevin Smith brings the ball up the floor. Smith led all players with 19 points in the win over Liberty. Liberty's Eddie Byrd soars aloft to receive a pass. Byrd was named to the All-Tournament team.
ORANGE COUNTY, NY—It’s only early December but the rock is already rolling as it did at a pair of basketball tournaments at Chester and S.S. Seward. These tourneys featured a number of area teams anxious to throw their hats in the ring as Section Nine contenders in the crowded and talented fields of Class B and Class C.
When it comes to hardwood encounters, it’s where you finish by the end of the season that matters. By that time, these early clashes will be a distant memory but that said, every game in an 18-game regular season schedule matters.
To some, the fiery March games of the Section Nine tournament may seem light years away but truth be told, the basketball season goes by in a New York minute and these early games while providing great game experience also count in teams’ records, especially for those who will need to rely on achieving at least a .500 record overall in order to qualify for sectionals.
Boys Action
Intensity was far from lacking in the Sixth Annual Chester Hambletonian Classic tournament which came right on the heels of the Walton Tournament that had featured the participation of both Fallsburg and Sullivan West. That first week encounter had yielded mixed results for the Class C Comets as well as for the Class B Bulldog boys. Fallsburg lost a 51-49 squeaker to Walton in the opening round of that tourney before edging Sullivan West 61-57 in the Consolation Game.
Sullivan West (0-2) had lost the opening game to Unatego by the score of 55-35 and was anxious to get its first win of the season at the Chester tourney as it got set to face Chapel Field early on December 3. The Bulldogs prevailed against the Lions 50-34 to match their win total from the 2010-11 campaign. They were paced by 12 points from E.J. Franskevicz. They move on to face Fallsburg (2-1) in the tournament title game next weekend in a rematch of their encounter at the Walton Tourney.
Fallsburg returns its entire team minus Russell Corley who is sidelined due to a late season football injury. A year ago Corley suffered a fracture to a bone in his face at this very same tournament so once again, the Comets will have to be without him for an indeterminate amount of time.
The Comets jumped on Chester from the get go as they went on to an impressive 61-37 win over one of their Division V rivals. Braiden DeGraw led all scorers with 27 points and Michael Robinson had 15. Chester’s Lawrence Young had 12 points for the (0-1) Hambletonians who will host Chapel Field in the Consolation Game next weekend.
Robinson had poured in 30 against Sullivan West at Walton to go along with 12 rebounds. In that win he was assisted by guard Rakkir Watson who had 12.
Leaving the Hambletonian Tournament after watching the entire game between the Chester and Fallsburg girls and the first quarter of the boys set-to (More on the girls game shortly), I hastened to Seward to watch the second half of the Consolation match up of the Spartan Invitational Tournament between host Seward and visiting Liberty.
Seward lost its opener to O’Neill 55-54 despite having a late four point lead and with standout Andrew Bailey at the line. A pair of missed free throws, an O’Neill rebound, basket and foul cut the lead to one. The Raiders won the game on a final shot by Jordan Baskerville with 4.5 seconds remaining.
In the other tourney opener, Millbrook downed Liberty 58-31 in a game that first year Liberty Coach Mike Salvia would like to soon forget. The Indians vowed to play better in the consolation match versus Seward and they did, but it was just not good enough as the Spartans prevailed 55-39 led by guard Kevin Smith’s 19 and Bailey’s 18.
Liberty standout Eddie Byrd was relatively quiet with 14 points. He had posted 19 against the Blazers in the tourney opener. Byrd was named to the All-Tournament team along with Bailey. They were joined by O’Neill’s D.J. Dalition and Jimmy Ripa and Millbrook’s Daniel Blayney and MVP Tyler Dahlin. Seward (1-1) will travel to Warwick for its next early season challenge. Liberty has a two-week respite before its next game to work on its offensive struggles.
“It’s early in the season,” said Salvia. “Hopefully we can get back to work and back to basics. We didn’t have much time to prepare,” he said following the pair of losses to two really good teams. “Millbrook came in and jumped us and Seward wore us down the whole way,” he added. “We have Port Jervis on the 17th so we have time to regroup. Our zone offense and our rebounding are what needs the most work. We’re not rebounding the basketball well. It seems like we’re not hungry for the ball,” he averred. “That’s something we’ve got to fix.”
Seward Coach Rob Gravelle said “I thought in the O’Neill game we played really well. We didn’t convert our free throws at the end. We were two-for-eight in the last four minutes. We got a good look to win the game but it didn’t go down. O’Neill is bringing back some good players. I was upset for my kids because they didn’t get a win and I thought they deserved it but I was proud of what they showed in that opener.”
Gravelle gave credit to Jordan Baskerville for making O’Neill’s winning shot.” Seward lost two standout players in David Oliver and Scott Glowaczewski from his team that lost a heartbreaker to Pine Plains in last year’s Class C Sectional final.
But with Bailey and Shawn Howells returning, as well as Isaac and Isiah Rodriguez, to go along with the immensely talented Kevin Smith, Seward looks to be competitive among the “Rough C’s.” “We lost a lot as everyone knows. Anthony Bailey is a great player and there is no kid I would rather go to battle with than Kevin Smith. He’s a gritty, tough and talented player.”
I give credit to my assistants Sal Mineo and Bill Steele. While I’m coaching Little League in the spring they’ve got our kids in AAU tournaments getting them extra games for getting them playing time together.” Seward faces a big challenge as it heads to Warwick on December 6. “You want to build your team and playing these kind of games is how you do it,”said Gravelle who led the Spartans to a state championship title win over Moriah in 2003.
By Gravelle’s estimation, “Fallsburg is the clear-cut favorite this year in Class C. They return their whole team and they beat my team last year which was a very good team. They were all juniors and we were all seniors,” he noted in response to the reminder that Seward beat Fallsburg twice including in the sectionals. “They’ve had a lot of time to play together and I had a chance to coach Michael Robinson in the summer and he’s just a quality kid with a motor that never stops. He’s a great leader for that team. I have the utmost respect for them and they are the favorite,” said Gravelle who realizes that Class C will be a dog fight again. “It always is,” he added looking forward to the Comets’ visit just after New Year’s. “That game is on my birthday,” said Gravelle smiling.
Chester Girls Garner A League Win With A Commanding Dominance Of Fallsburg
In order for Fallsburg to run on all cylinders, it needs its spark plug Sheryl Pinder to be firing smoothly. Pinder had 32 points in the consolation game 53-33 win over Downsville at the Walton Tournament that included eight three pointers. The 1-1 Lady Comets looked to carry that success forward as they faced Chester in what would be their first league encounter. Since Chapel Field is not fielding a girls team this season, Fallsburg coach Daniel Redmond agreed to have this game serve as Chester’s home outing of their regular season two-game league series.
After watching his star emerge with a mere seven points in the lackluster Fallsburg showing that resulted in a 42-23 Chester win, Redmond was sorry he had agreed to the arrangement. Chester jumped out to a 15-1 first quarter lead early on led by Mardelle Jean who would go on to post 11 points, five steals and five rebounds.
Fallsburg outscored Chester in the second quarter as they made it closer at 30-17 but they managed to score only two points in the third quarter to trail 38-19 heading into the final frame. Ashley Georges had 10 points and seven assists and Amanda Shembri had 10 points for Chester (1-0, 1-0 OCIAA) which will face Eldred at 3:00 pm on December 10 in the tournament championship game. Eldred (1-0) bested Sullivan West 32-22 in the first semifinal of the day. Fallsburg (1-2, 0-1 OCIAA) will play Sullivan West (0-1) in the consolation game at 10:00am on December 10.
Chester Coach Peter Rickard was proud of his team’s first outing. Even without his point guard Leanne Jankelunas who is sidelined for a couple of more games, he felt his team played well. “I’m looking forward to playing Eldred in the championship game. They played well,” he noted referencing one of his team’s Division V rivals. Since the game with Eldred will not be a division game, Chester and Eldred will end up playing each other three times in the regular season and could conceivably meet again in sectionals if both teams make it and depending on seedings at that time.
Liberty defeated S.S. Seward 28-23 in the opening round of the Spartan Invitational Tourney behind Olivia Baum’s ten point contribution. The Lady Indians will square off against Goshen in the title game on December 5. Goshen defeated James I. O’Neill 41-22 in the other semifinal.
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