Amherst XC sweeps WMass D1

The Amherst Regional boys and girls cross country team each took home Western Massachusetts titles at the championship meet in Northfield.

On the boys side, Jesse Coull (5th), Dylan Wight (9), James Traester (10), Ryan Mathers (13) and Steven Kalt (15) were the scorers for the Hurricanes. Sam Coates-Finke was third for Northampton.

For the girls, Audrey Gould (2nd) led the way, followed by Mel Devoney (4th). Madison Granger of Belchertown was third, while Serena Savage of South Hadley was fifth.

In Division 2 boys, Sam Powell of Holyoke Catholic was 12th, while Ian Barber of Hampshire was 20th.

In Division 2 girls, Natalie Mako (Frontier) was 2nd, Brittany Dalton (Hampshire) was third and Staci Rezendez (HC) was fourth.

We'll have complete coverage up later today.

Amherst Regional corrects imbalance in sports

Gazette reporter Mike Wilkinson has a story on A1 of tomorrow's paper regarding some changes being made in regard to Amherst sports schedules.

Here's the beginning of it:

By MICHAEL WILKINSON
Staff Writer
AMHERST — When the fall high school sports season begins next week, Amherst Regional High School team schedules will be changed to improve gender equity.

The United States Department of Education’s Civil Rights Division opened an investigation into whether the school failed to provide equal treatment to girls’ athletic programs.

A complaint filed in October by Amherst resident Craig Goff led to the investigation. The school district decided to resolve the issue this May, although the resolution is not an admission of discriminatory activity.

Four changes the school will implement include providing an equal percentage of prime-time games for girls programs; an equal percentage of night games under the lights; a full schedule for girls soccer, tennis and volleyball; and equal access to more convenient practice times if the boys and girls programs share a facility.

“We were surprised at first, but looked forward to the review of our program,” said Amherst athletic director Karen Keough-Huff. “We have faced tremendous budget cuts over the last four years in athletics. One of our strategies to make ends meet was to reduce the number of competitive events for most teams. This would allow us to keep all of our sports. 

“We did this wherever possible and in an equitable manner,” she said. “I am certain that we will continue to provide equal opportunity for our male and female students who participate in our athletic program.”

Goff had been vocal since his daughter played varsity soccer a decade ago about what he said were scheduling inequalities.

“It’s a long story, but basically I looked at the schedule and the girls played games during non-prime time, after school was out,” Goff said. “My daughter played soccer at Amherst about 10 years ago, and it was the same issue then. Both the boys and girls soccer played after school, while football played at night.”

Goff said day games make it hard for parents who work to come out and watch.

“It’s hard to get the support of the community playing right after school, and I couldn’t believe it was still happening, especially after they installed a second field and were given funding to install lights so they could play in prime time,” he said.

The girls soccer team will play three night home games this season, with the rest of their home contests at 4 p.m.

***

The rest of the story will be posted on GazetteNET later tonight and on the front page of the tomorrow's paper.

Amherst softball topples Milford, heads to state final

Emma Mendoker tossed a two-hit shutout, Brittany Deres had a two-run single and Amherst Regional got some revenge in a 3-0 win over Milford at the UMass Softball Complex on Thursday.

The Hurricanes (23-1) will play defending state champion King Philip of Wrentham (25-0) in the finals Saturday at 7 p.m. at Worcester State.

Much more from the game later.

Amherst softball wins title; Easthampton baseball falls short

The Amherst softball team defeated Agawam 2-0 at UMass on Monday to earn its second straight WMass Division 1 Tournament title and third in four years. The Hurricanes get a rematch Thursday in the state semifinals against Milford, which won last year's state semis 1-0 in eight innings. The game is set for 4 p.m. back at UMass.

In baseball, Easthampton battled back from an early 6-0 deficit to even the score with Pioneer Regional, but the Panthers won it 8-6 with a two-run homer in the seventh at Bullens Field in Westfield.

We'll have much more on both games posted later.

Mendoker named state Gatorade Player of the Year

Emma Mendoker was named the Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year on Thursday.

Mendoker, a senior pitcher for Amherst Regional, has posted a 21-1 record with a 0.15 ERA and 269 strikeouts in 149 innings pitched. She will take the circle Saturday in the Western Massachusetts Division 1 Tournament final against Agawam. First pitch is set for 5 p.m.

Mendoker, who led last year's Hurricanes to a 23-1 record and a trip to the state semifinals, will play at Division I East Carolina University next season.

We'll have more posted later today.

Ziomek named to SEC All-Freshman Team

Amherst native Kevin Ziomek was named to the Southeastern Conference All-Freshman Team.

Ziomek has been outstanding in a relief role with the nationall-ranked Vanderbilt baseball team.

SEC announcement

Anchor of Gold - Vandy baseball blog

Amherst beats Agawam 3-2 in softball thriller

Quianna Diaz-Patterson answers back with an RBI triple to tie the game. Simone Frank with a slap hit to third, Diaz-Patterson beats the throw him. Amherst wins 3-2.

--update--

Amherst gets one back - 2-1 after six. Quianna Diaz-Patterson hits solo homer but called out after missing second base.

--update --

Agawam scores two unearned in the sixth and led 2-0. More to follow.

Amherst softball loses, snaps regular season 65-game win streak

For the first time since April 18, 2008, the Amherst Regional softball team lost a regular season game on Friday afternoon.
The Hurricanes allowed two unearned runs in the first inning and fell to Agawam 2-0 on the road.
Amherst (10-1, 0-1 Valley) had won 65 straight regular season games, dating back to a 5-1 loss to Westfield back in 2008. That squad won 15 straight to end the regular season and eventually won the WMass title. The team posted back-to-back 20-0 regular seasons and had won 10 straight before Friday’s loss.
Since the Westfield defeat, Amherst had won 59 straight games against teams from the Pioneer Valley. The team also had a 30 game winning streak against all WMass squads snapped with the loss.
“They were certainly ready for us and we didn’t play well,” said Amherst coach Kacey Schmitt, whose team last loss to a WMass squad when it was shocked by Pittsfield 3-2 in the first round of the 2009 tournament. “I told them after the game that this showed that we have to show up and be ready to play. We can’t just expect to win. We’ll see how we respond.”
Emma Mendoker suffered her first career regular season loss after allowing two unearned runs on four hits and one walk while striking out 10.
The senior also had one of the team’s two hits. Athena Donta added a single in the loss.

*We'll have more high school coverage posted later tonight.

Vandy baseball on national TV Sunday

The No. 1 Vanderbilt baseball team's game against South Carolina will be televised live on ESPN2 Sunday. Taylor Hill (2-0, 3.19 ERA) will start for the Commodores, but there's a chance Amherst native Kevin Ziomek will pitch out of the bullpen.

Coverage begins at 1 p.m.

Amherst XC winning streak snapped

Frontier Regional beat Amherst Regional 28-29 Tuesday to snap the Hurricanes' 109 dual-meet winning streak.

More to come.

Kicking off the fall season

Monday marked the unofficial beginning of the fall sports season with the kickoff of football practice, so it feels like a good time to check in with a few notes from around the area.
First off, here's the link to a video of Northampton's opening practice on Monday filmed by Jerrey Roberts: http://www.gazettenet.com/2010/08/24/season-starts-now.

AMHERST HALL OF FAME - Amherst AD Karen Keough-Huff released the 15 names in the school's first-ever Hall of Fame class on Tuesday. The group will be honored at the Marriott Courtyard in Hadley on Sept. 25. Also, the story sparked a discussion in the office that I thought I'd share. You can find it at the bottom of this post. ... The notebook also includes the passing of an Easthampton great and an honor for the late Frank Tudryn. Check out the full story here: http://www.gazettenet.com/2010/08/25/gold-standard

FALL SPORTS PREVIEW - This year's edition runs on Thursday, Sept. 9. Be sure to mark the date on your calendar and pick one up at the newstand.
We'll preview the upcoming season on The Gazette Sports Podcast (posted each and every week here: http://www.gazettenet.com/podcasts/sports_podcast) that same week.

COMING UP - We're going to have a few new features popping up both here and in the paper in the next few weeks.
My all new weekly high school sports notebook will run in the paper and online every Thursday along with the updated standings, etc. that you've come to expect from our weekly page. We'll also be posting live scoreboard updates every single weekday here on the high school sports blog.

A LITTLE FUN - We use the team "Gridiron Gurus" in the paper for our football picks each week and the term is, well, a little bit of an exaggeration. Anyway, you can join us now in picking NFL winners. This is just for fun. Here's the link to the Gazette Sports group: http://ow.ly/2t9bM

NEXT - I'll be back late Thursday night with another post regarding key fall storylines to watch.

FINALLY - The announcement of the Amherst Hall of Fame had us discussing which athletes at the high school last year will eventually make it in. We agreed that there are four virtual locks: Kevin Ziomek, Quianna Diaz-Patterson, Emma Mendoker, Maya Hart. Did we miss anyone? That's pretty incredible, especially when you consider that the three females haven't even finished their HS careers yet.

Amherst lefty Kevin Ziomek still unsigned

According to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic Amherst lefty Kevin Ziomek, who is attending summer classes at Vanderbilt, has not signed. The following is from Piecoro's blog on azcentral.com.

"So assuming they save the $2 million they were
planning to spend, will they reallocate that toward some of their other
picks from this year or will they work it into next year’s draft budget
to pay for that extra pick? That’s a question I haven’t been able to
get answered.

From what I can tell, two of those high-ceiling,
hard-to-sign high schoolers they took later in the draft -- LHP Kevin
Ziomek and (13th round) and OF Ty Linton (14th round) -- still look
like extreme long shots to get signed.

The club is still working on signing RHP Blake
Perry (sixth round) and RHP Tyler Green (eighth round), and another
name to keep in mind is LHP Roberto Padilla (23rd round), whom the club
has been monitoring this summer.

I’ve heard Ziomek has a price tag well over $2
million. If the Diamondbacks or any other team in the draft felt he was
worth that kind of money, he wouldn’t have slipped to the 13th round,
right? But, given the Loux situation, should they overpay for him?

Or should they take that money and pour it into Latin America?"

Ziomek fires perfect game

Amherst Regional junior lefty Kevin Ziomek struck out 18 and threw a perfect game, beating Northampton 3-0 Friday night in Amherst in the first round of the Western Massachusetts Division 1 Tournament.

Ziomek was superb, throwing fastballs, curves and sliders. He threw 92 pitches, 68 for strikes. Only one ball left the infield, a Jimmy Laizer fly in the seventh.

Here is my scorebook. The single lines at the top of the second, third, fourth and seventh innings are foul balls with two strikes: