News & notes

 Country singer John Conlee had a hit song back in the day, "Friday Night Blues". Sports fans in the 518 were feeling those blues, but for a different reason.

Our tale of woe starts in Clifton Park, where Troy High finished a winless season in lacrosse, falling to Shenendehowa, 21-1, to finish the regular season 0-13. To their credit, the Plainsmen, on their Twitter page, chose not to disclose the final score to spare Troy further humiliation, saying only that Shen had 8 players tally goals. The talent just isn't there at Troy in lacrosse, and it'll be a while before they can find someone that can lead the laxmen to the win column. At least they scored a goal in the final quarter of the season, so there's that.

Next, we head to Saratoga. Troy's softball team dropped its 4th straight, 4-1, to the Lady Streaks. Sean Geisel's club (7-7, 6-7 Suburban Council) will get to play Cohoes after all, as the non-league game will be the home finale this afternoon at 3 pm. Troy baseball split a doubleheader with Saratoga, taking the first game, 5-1, for their 3rd straight win, but the Blue Streaks turned things around in the nightcap with a 9-0 win. Troy is now 9-5, and will finish the regular season with CBA today, also at 3. The 2nd game was considered a non-league game.

The upside is that Chris Strack's club will finish above .500 for the first time in a long time, and their ace, Mike Kennedy, will return next season.

Back at home, the Tri-City Valleycats opened the home portion of their season hoping to end a 5 game losing streak as they welcomed the New Jersey Jackals, making their first visit to Troy.

First pitch was pushed back to 7:20 pm due to pre-game tributes to team founder Bill Gladstone and Senator Joe Bruno, both of whom passed away last year.

Tri-City never led, as they fell behind, 2-0, despite a standout performance by starter Carlos Sano, who went six innings, and left with the game tied at 2 thanks to a Juan Silverio homer in the home 6th. However, the Jackals abused the 'Cats' bullpen, scoring 15 runs in the final three innings to post a 17-2 victory, sending the 'Cats skidding to their 6th straight loss while ending a brief two game losing streak of their own. Ouch!

The series resumes tonight at 7.

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Shenendehowa grad Ian Anderson was hoping to rebound from a loss to the Mets last Saturday night when he took the hill at Truist Park to face the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, the defending World Series champions had other ideas.

For the 2nd straight game, Anderson was knocked out in the 5th inning, going 4 1/3 this time, giving up four runs for the 2nd straight game, as the Dodgers beat Atlanta, 9-5. In hindsight, maybe Brian Snitker's plan to give Anderson an extra day's rest backfired after all.

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But, there is a happy ending, supplied by the Albany Empire.

Albany rolled into New Jersey to take on the Jersey Flight. This YouTube broadcast is being called by the Flight's own announcers.

This is the only Friday game on the regular season schedule for Albany. It's Saturdays going forward, starting with a home game next week at Times-Union Center. 

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Lest we forget that the Albany Dutchmen's opener at Glens Falls on Thursday was suspended by rain in the 5th inning, with Albany already up, 10-1. They will finish that game as part of a double-dip when they return to Glens Falls on Tuesday. No boxscore until then. The Dutchmen will christen their new home field in Guilderland today with a doubleheader.