Sports

By John Bernhardt
Runs came in bunches Thursday in the fifth inning of Roxbury’s baseball opener. Visiting Stamford plated four runs in the top of the inning to build an 8-3 lead, but Roxbury rallied to score eight times in their half of the inning. The eight-run explosion provided just enough Rocket power as Roxbury held on to register an 11-10 season-opening win.

Two infield errors and a walk spotted Stamford two runs in the first. Roxbury scored two runs of their own to even things up in their first at bat of the season.

Battling back

By John Bernhardt
“We’ll surprise people this year,” Margaretville softball coach Bill Lonecke insisted when talking about his 2013 team. Lonecke’s confidence is forged by experience and five consecutive Blue Devil Upper Division Delaware League championships. The Margaretville coach and his team have their sights set on number six.

By John Bernhardt
He’s an ambassador of golf, a local head-golf professional who has spent a lifetime associated with the game. Gordie Faulkner bubbles with enthusiasm when he talks about the sport he loves. Faulkner will bring that enthusiasm and energy to a junior golf program to be held in July at the Meadows Golf Center in Margaretville.

Staff report
“If we pitch and defend, we compete.”
Margaretville’s baseball coach John Bernhardt knows his team is young and his roster is thin. Even so, Bernhardt expects his Blue Devils to compete.

Bernhardt believes baseball success begins with solid pitching. The Margaretville coach feels that in junior Kyle Short, his team has a pitching ace.
“The role of a pitching ace is about more than throwing the ball,” Bernhardt explains. It’s about the attitude you bring with you when you climb the hill to pitch,” he concludes.

Tough to hit

By Joe Moskowitz
On April 1, at least two things are supposed to happen in New York State. Not everyone agrees which is the most important. It’s the first day of the trout-fishing season and it’s the start of New York’s fiscal year. In other words, a new budget is supposed to be approved by then. Sometimes it does happen.

By John Bernhardt
Like most things at Andes Central School, the track program depends on a team-like approach to schooling. Everybody pitches in. For the smallest school in Section IV, being small is a success criteria rather than a liability, more about making the best of what you have rather than focusing on what you don’t.

Margaretville — The MCS Booster Club will host its 10th annual indoor soccer tournament at Margaretville Central School on Friday evening March 8 and all day Saturday, March 9. The tournament will include 44 teams divided into four age groups. The 6th- to 8th-grade bracket will be Friday evening starting at 5 p.m.

The Delaware League announced its all star teams for the 2012-13 season last Thursday and five members of the boys’ league champions, the Margaretville Blue Devils, earned recognition as first-team, second-team or honorable-mention all stars.

Earning first-team recognition for Margaretville were Mitch Hull and Kyle Short. Other first team members were Zach Perry of Gilboa-Conesville, Zach Mudge and Dylan Legg of Hunter- Tannersville, Trevor Holdridge of South Kortright and Gregg Mattice, and Matt Anderson of Stamford.

By John Bernhardt
It was fitting that Saturday’s Section IV boys’ basketball quarterfinal game in Margaretville was an old-fashioned, nail-biting thriller. The Margaretville basketball faithful had waited a full decade between Section IV playoff appearances by an MCS team on their home floor. Legions of Blue Devils fans packed the Margaretville gymnasium to cheer on their guys. In the end, it was not quite enough as visiting Marathon eked out a 55-49 decision to advance to Wednesday’s semifinals.

By John Bernhardt
For retired Margaretville baseball coach Rick Funck, it never really was about the wins or losses. Sure, Funck, wanted to win. But, at the end of the day it was the thanks Funck received from his players and the fact that his guys came out of each season playing better baseball than they had when the season started that really mattered to Funck.

Funck, who coached varsity baseball for 27 years at Margaretville, was inducted into the Delaware League’s Coaches Hall of Fame between games at Friday night’s Crossover Championships in SUNY Delhi.