News & notes

 The Suburban Council is assured of retaining the Class AA & A crowns come Tuesday.

The Class AA baseball tournament might as well be renamed the Suburban Council Championship, since there are no other Class AA schools outside of the league, with Catholic Central & LaSalle (Colonial Council) now in different classes. In fact, the Cadets nearly spoiled the party for the Suburban Council in A, except for the red hot Spartans of Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake.

The Spartans shut out LaSalle, 15-0, Saturday afternoon, and, as the #3 seed (I thought they were lower), will host #4 Troy, which similarly blew out top seeded South Glens Falls, 14-2, winning their third straight and fifth in their last six. Mike Kennedy led Troy with 5 RBI on the day, and likely will be on the hill when the Flying Horses & Spartans meet for the 2nd time this season on Tuesday.

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One of the differences between the Frontier League and the now-defunct NY-Penn League came up and bit the Tri-City Valleycats on Saturday night.

After being locked in a 4-4 standoff with Sussex County after 10 innings, the 'Cats played Home Run Derby with the Miners, and lost, 5-0, so the Miners pick up another win over the struggling Valleycats, with the series finale later today.

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The Albany Dutchmen dropped a doubleheader to Amsterdam by identical 3-0 scores on Saturday night. The Mohawks have added Brett Young (Siena/Albany Academy) to their roster. Brett went 1-5 in the doubleheader before being lifted after his 2nd at-bat in game 2. As has been the case at Siena, and, before that, VCU, Brett is playing the outfield, in this case in center field. From what I've been told, Brett is playing with Amsterdam on the recommendation of Siena coach Tony Rossi, despite the fact that Siena/Academy teammate Ben Seiler pitches for the Dutchmen.

The business of baseball, yo'.

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Ex-Valleycat Joe Musgrove was abused by the Mets for the 2nd time in a week Saturday afternoon. Musgrove went 6 1/3 innings, and took the loss as the Mets beat San Diego, 4-1. Last week, Musgrove had the misfortune to be matched against Mets ace Jacob deGrom. This time, it was Marcus Stroman, who also went 6 1/3, and picked up the win.

Another ex-'Cat, Vince Velasquez, got the start for Philadelphia against the Yankees, but didn't figure in the decision as Philadelphia won its third straight in walk-off fashion, in 10 innings. Velasquez went the first five, could've had the win, but the bullpen couldn't hold it for him, as DJ LeMahieu homered in the top of the 9th to tie it. Philadelphia needed the win to keep pace with the front-running Mets.