News & notes

 The Tri-City Valleycats will enter the postseason on a downer, after Ottawa salvaged the final game of the regular season, 9-1, on Sunday afternoon, ending the 'Cats' 7 game winning streak.

Tri-City opens the playoffs at home vs. Sussex County Wednesday night.

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Today begins James Allen's annual forecast of high school sports in the Albany Times-Union. One surprising bit of news is the fact that Averill Park has been downgraded from Class A to Class B. Well, we've seen other schools, like LaSalle, for example, move from Class AA to Class A, so this isn't anything new, except that the newly reminted Golden Knights had been an A school for forever.

We sought out a spokesman for Averill Park:

"I think they lost too many kids to not so much graduation, but transfers to prep schools, and other rivals in the region."

Pretty much tells the tale. We'll see where AP is classified in other sports.

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The Saratoga racing season ends today, but it's already over for 2 jockeys.

Riding champion Irad Ortiz, Jr. escaped serious injury after a spill during the Jockey Club Gold Cup, in which Ortiz was unseated from his mount, Mindframe, whose stablemate, Antiquarian, won the race for trainer Todd Pletcher and owner Mike Repole.

Jose Lezcano suffered a broken collarbone on Friday after he was unseated from his mount, Catchy, who was put down after the race.

Repole, on the other hand, is angry with jockeys Kendrick Carmouche & Dylan Davis. Carmouche's mount, Phileas Fogg, veered sharply to the left after breaking from the starting gate. Contrary Thinking, with Davis up, bumped into White Abarrio, causing a chain reaction leading to White Abarrio bumping Mindframe, knocking Ortiz down. Repole is calling for the suspensions of both Carmouche & Davis, which are likely to take effect, once racing moves back to Aqueduct later this week.

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Sunday's college scoreboard:

Field hockey:

UAlbany 3, Wagner 1.

Men's soccer:

RPI 6, Marywood 1.

Women's soccer:

Siena & New Hampshire played to a scoreless draw.

RPI 1, Plattsburgh 0.

Boston College 6, UAlbany 1.

Women's volleyball:

Siena 3, Central Connecticut State 0.

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Not a good weekend for Section II soccer after the tournament at LaSalle ended Sunday. The host Cadets fell to CBA-Syracuse, 3-0,  while CBA-Albany and St. Joseph's of Buffalo played to a 2-2 draw.