Sports Highlights
By Don Lyons - June 8, 2006
Babe Ruth Softball
The Braves finished their season with a win over the Devil Rays and two over the Yankees with an 11-1 record. Alecia Oliveira, Kelsey DeBettencourt, Meaghan Jeffers, Emily Hines, and Jillian Sedlier had big games for the Tribe.
Martha Scheffer, Kia Minor, Lauren and Emily Williston made large contributions for the Rays. Evan Faber, Liz Reid, and Sandy Perez continue to shine for the Yanks.
The DiamondBacks took two from the A's. In the first game Amanda Gonsalves took a sure home run away from Lauren Metell - the defensive play of the week. Emily Alosso hit a round-tripper. Emma Frizzell and Olivia Higham pitched well in the losing cause. Collette Jordan and Leanne Jackson shared the mound for the 'Backs; Brittany Devaney and Erin Morris anchored the defense. Kate Mahoney, Jenna Pothier, and Andrea Metell played well for the A's.
Two playoff spots have been decided: (1) Braves (2) DiamondBacks. The A's and Devil Rays are competing for the third and fourth spots and the Yankees are fifth.
The playoffs begin Monday, June 12 and the championship game will be played Saturday, June 17.
Minor matters
Wednesday the Marlins outdistanced the Reds, 20-12, behind the big bats of Mike Ducatt and Joey Uva and excellent relief pitching by Ben Lukowitz. The Reds held the lead through the fourth, an inning in which they scored four runs and Oliver Silberstein collected his first hit of the season. Gabe Bergeron stabbed a screaming liner at the mound; Andrew Han and D.J. Nelson executed a neat double play.
Friday the Orioles flew away from the Devil Rays, 21-6 and the Marlins colored the Reds blue, 22-5. Cameron Maciel had a grand slam. Curtis Farrell earned the win on the mound.
Monday the Blue Jays topped the Reds, 22-9. Jacob McCracken stroked a home run for the Reds in the fourth.
The Twins landed the Marlins, 11-1.
Minors standings
G W L
Twins 13 12 1
Blue Jays 10 9 1
Marlins 13 8 5
Rockies 7 4 3
Orioles 10 5 5
Indians 10 4 6
Reds 12 1 11
Devil Rays 12 0 12
Babe Ruth Lower League
Wednesday, the Dodgers beat the Red Sox, 11-7.
Monday, the Phillies edged the Dodgers, 7-6. The Phillies starter, Sammi Chaves, helped herself by snagging a line drive and tossing to first for a DP.
Alex Clark reached four times, scored twice, and had two hits. Kendall Robinson hit safely three times, including two doubles, and pitched well in relief.
Emily Cimeno had two hits for the Dodgers and finished the game on the mound.
After the Phillies took a 5-0 lead in the first inning, the Dodgers rallied for five in the third. Both scored in the fourth.
League Standings
W L T
Phillies 9 0 0
Orioles 4 4 1
Dodgers 3 6 0
Red Sox 1 7 1
Bill's at it again.
After a period of enforced ease, Bill Brown, the Island's most insistent distance runner, is at it again. He ran the Deadwood (South Dakota) Trail Marathon, Sunday, finishing 154th of a field of 375, in 4:25.
Bill is a member of the 50 staters, who share the goal of running a marathon in each and every state. S.D., the Coyote State, which gave us Tom Brokaw, Sitting Bull, Cheryl Ladd, and Sparky Anderson, where Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane are buried, was Bill's 37th state.
The "trail" was in fact an old railroad bed with a 3 percent incline for the first 13 miles and 3 percent decline to the finish.
What's next ? An ironman swim, bike, run at Lake Placid.
Girls bow to Hingham in OT
The MVRHS varsity girls lacrosse team, seeded sixth, closed out a successful season with an overtime loss to the 11th seed, Hingham, here Wednesday in the first round of MIAA tournament play.
Hingham, a fast, aggressive team, posted the first goal but Katie Campbell converted a pass from Laura Jernegan to even the count. The game was just two minutes old.
Hingham went ahead again four minutes later, but Taylor MacDonald scooped a loose ball and hurried it up field to knot the score again, 2-2.
Jernegan came up with another key pass to Jane Alexander who scored and MacDonald converted a free position putting the Islanders up by two.
Hingham roared back scoring twice late in the period. Then with 1:02 on the clock, Jane Alexander picked up a loose ball behind the Vineyard net and executed a perfect crease roll giving the purple a 5-4 edge at the half.
In the second half, Hingham scored three unanswered goals to lead by two. Then Clark intercepted a goalie's clearing pass and returned it to the net. But Hingham scored again at 7:35. Playing catch-up, Clark scored on a pass from MacDonald then scored again on a free position with less than a minute on the clock and the game was tied.
MV had two more free position opportunities in the time remaining, but Hingham's goalie came up with the saves to send the game into a six-minute overtime.
Hingham scored twice in OT and held the Vineyard scoreless to claim the game, 10-8.
Coach Betsy Dripps said, "It was sad to see the season end. I really loved coaching this group of kids. They all worked well together, had a lot of heart and just had fun playing lacrosse." She said she would miss the seniors: Taylor MacDonald, Katie Campbell, Jenny Murphy, Katie Keppeler, Emily Lindsey, Katherine Clark, and Brianna McCormick. "I have a lot of young talent coming up, but these seven seniors leave some mighty big shoes to fill. I wish them all the best of luck wherever they go - they will do well!"
FOVS in action
Friends of Vineyard Soccer fielded five travel teams in the South Coast Soccer League which includes the Cape and South Coast as far as Taunton and Norton.
The short-handed U-16 girls travel team (only 10 made the trip) trounced Nantucket, Sunday, 7-2. Nica Sylvia scored four times. Other goals were by Lanie Aristide, Eliza Greene, and Alexia Schroeder. The U-16 girls, coached by Eric Iversen, finished the season with 5 wins, 3 losses in third place in a 10-team division. They will travel to New Bedford for the first round of the playoffs.
The U-16 boys, coached by Phil Dwane, completed a perfect 8-0 season by edging Dartmouth, Saturday, 3-2. Their first playoff game will be played at Veterans Memorial Field at 5:15, Sunday, June 17.
The also short-handed U-13 boys lost to Nauset, Saturday, 3-4. With a record of 1-6-1 they failed to qualify for the playoffs. The team is coached by Eric Iversen and Andrew Warlock.
The U-11 boys team, coached by Colin Ouderkirk, ended the season in third place with a 5-1-2 record. Having qualified for the playoffs, they travel to Norton for the first round game, June 17.
The U-10 boys coached by Matt Poole and Esteban Aranzabe finished in third place in a 13 team division with a record of 6-2, better than expected for a new team playing against established programs at Sandwich, New Bedford, Y-D, Fall River and Dartmouth. There are no playoffs for this age group
The five MV teams of some 90 players amassed a combined record of 25 wins, 12 losses and 3 ties.
JV softball
The MVRHS junior varsity softball team lost its season-ender to Carver, Wednesday, 19-11. Danielle Clermont and Lauren Williston hit home runs. It was Lauren's first game back after being sidelined with an ankle injury.
The Jayvees season record is 9 wins, 7 losses.
The 12th Children's
Joe Forte, Mike Lynch, Greg Willett, Arthur Winters, and Mark Yale were the winning team, Sunday, at Farm Neck, in the 12th annual Children's Benefit Golf Tournament benefiting the Boys & Girls Club and Big Brothers / Big Sisters of M.V. The winning net score was 55.8.
Right behind at 55.9 were Doug Hoehn, Dick Barbini, Glen Searle, Jeff Norton, and John Boyle.
At third were Mark Lucier, Chris Lucier, Rene Lucier, Tim Lucier, and John Farrington with 56.8.
The prize for the longest drive - lunch for two at Among the Flowers - went to Dan Bettencourt.
The ladies longest drive was Ann Heron's. Her prize: lunch for two at the Coach House.
Closest to the pin on the par three holes were: 4th, Jim Norton; 6th Bill Hall; 9th Greg Willett, 15th Richard Combra. All earned dinner for two at Square Rigger, Chesca's, L'Etoile, or The Grill on Main.
Winning dinner for two for balls closest to the pin on par four holes (second shots) were: #3 Dennis Arnold, Black Dog Tavern; #5 Dennis Arnold, $100 gift certificate at Soigné; #13 Connie O'Dougherty, Alchemy; #14, Kyle Fiore, Espresso Love.
The prize for sinking the longest putt, breakfast at the Edgartown Inn, went to Ted Rorer.
BB/BS and the B&G Club thank Tim Sweet, Mike Zoll, Don Costello, Kyle Fiore, Mia Rebello and the entire Farm Neck staff.
TV calling
Bo Palinic, casting director for the new Fox reality series, "Trading Spouses," is looking for families who are "wildly enthusiastic" Red Sox fans as candidates to appear on the show. The families chosen must have at least two children who are at least six years old. Participating families receive $50,000.
See www.fox.com/tradingspouses to learn more.
Casting deadline is Friday, June 12.
Buehning comes to VTC
Gordon Ernst, Executive Director of Vineyard Youth Tennis (VYT) for the past three years, has accepted a new post as varsity tennis coach for men and women at Georgetown University.
Frederick (Fritz) Buehning has been engaged as interim executive director. A former high school All American in New Jersey, Fritz went on to star as an NCAA All American for UCLA before joining the ATP professional circuit, winning one ATP singles title and 15 ATP doubles titles.
Fritz will be supervising a staff of six college and high school players, including returning Joe McCor-mack, Sam Lazarus of Middlebury, and Rachel DeCruz of Colby.
Fritz has revised the summer schedule to open more teaching slots in the June - August session. All tennis instruction at VYT is free of charge to persons up to the age of 19.
VYT's four clay courts are located at the blinker. Call VYT at 508-693-7762 to sign up for summer lessons.
Corrections
Previous reports to the contrary notwithstanding, the winning pitcher for Edgartown in the championship game with Oak Bluffs last week was Steven Handy.
And while we are setting things straight, Susan Branche, the first female to finish the OB Memorial Day 5K, is 48 years old and she ran the 5K in 20.59, as reported in the age/gender listing, not 46 and 29.59 as typo-marred appeared elsewhere and it was James Rice and Garrett Bishop who earned shot put points for MVRHS in the Mayflower League track meet.
Lax out at Winchester
The MVRHS boys varsity lacrosse post-season tournament hopes came to an end, Friday, at Winchester when the 7th-seeded Sachems (15-6) took advantage of the home field edge to beat the Islanders soundly, 15-4.
The team has plenty to be proud of, more than just their 13-7 record. They were hard working, hard playing ambassadors of good will and good sportsmanship for the Vineyard. They made us all proud.
MVRHS sailors are C&I champs again
The Vineyarders became the first team to win back to back Cape & Islands League championships at the Chatham Yacht Club, Saturday.
"It was a great day with ideal conditions," writes Sailing Coach Doug Heil, which usually means heavy winds and rough seas. But Saturday's winds were from the southwest and blew just 5 to 15 knots. That meant that the regatta could sail 16 races, eight in A Division, eight in B. Ideal !
Senior Elise Swartwood, with Emily Reich, a sophomore, as crew, jump-started the Vineyard team with two first-place finishes to grab the lead in the A Division. Junior Chris Edwards and freshman Conor Lodge did the same in the B Division.
The Islanders sailed boldly and noticeably faster than other teams and were consistently among the first three to finish, reports a pleased Coach Heil.
The good showing was especially gratifying as the team had not been on the water for two weeks, busy hosting the New England and National championship regattas.
The scores
Division A B Total
Martha's Vineyard 19 20 39
Dartmouth 30 18 48
Bishop Stang 23 46 69
Nauset 42 36 78
Nantucket 42 37 79
Dennis-Yarmouth 37 53 90
Sandwich 42 55 97
Harwich 66 40 106
Chatham 59 56 115
