Last year's bridesmaids, this year's champions

Last year, Ballston Spa contended for the Class AA title in baseball, and fell short, losing to Columbia. This year, both schools moved down to Class A, and the Scotties reached the title game, bent on going from bridesmaid to bride. First, though, they had to deal with Averill Park.

The Class A title game at Bruno Stadium drew the largest crowd of the weekend, as the fans were about evenly split between the two Suburban Council rivals, even though this amounted to a de facto home game for Averill Park.

Scotties senior hurler Michael Poirer got the start, and was brilliant in extricating himself from one difficult situation after another in the first three innings. The same cannot be said for Averill Park junior pitcher Anthony Childrose, who couldn't get out of the third inning.

In the first, with one out, Luke Gold singled, and back to back walks loaded the bases for the Scotties. A sacrifice fly by Chance Checca gave Ballston Spa a 1-0 lead. Two more walks by Childrose led to another Scotties run in the second. After giving up a lead-off double to Donovan Rhoden in the third, and a single to Checca, Childrose was pulled in favor of Wesley Duscher. A passed ball and back-to-back hits by Colman Hinman and Anthony DeVizzio put three more on the board, giving Ballston Spa a 5-0 lead after three.

Childrose was charged with all five runs on three hits, with one strikeout and five walks in two-plus innings.

In the fourth, Averill Park began to peck away at the lead. After being held without a hit through the first three innings, Avery Pascucci picked up the first hit of the night for the Warriors. A two run double by Ethan Simard put Averill Park on the board, but they still trailed, 5-2, after four innings. In the fifth, they inched even closer, and knocked Poirer from the game after consecutive walks to Anthony Carucci and Pascucci. Alex Yash plated Carucci with a single off Jake Manderson, who had moved from catcher to replace Poirer.

Manderson, however, slammed the door shut, allowing only a double to Ian Ziesue the rest of the way. Manderson retired the last seven batters to face him.

Ballston Spa put the game away with four runs in the sixth, finally solving Duscher. For his part, Poirer went four-plus, allowing three runs on three hits, while striking out three. Problem was inconsistent control, leading to six walks. Ballston Spa advances to state play with a 9-3 win.

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Earlier, defending Class D champion Fort Plain, moving to Class C this season, got a dominant pitching performance from junior pitcher John Cortese while the offense teed off on Hoosick Falls pitching. Cortese fanned 14 in five-plus innings as the Hilltoppers blew out the Panthers, 10-0, in six innings. Fort Plain, despite the class change, wins another sectional title.

The Class AA title will be decided between old rivals Shenendehowa and Niskayuna on Monday.