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The Top Spot:

The last time the Harrison baseball team won the Section I championship game assistant coach Jay Ciraco was a player for the Huskies.

Last night the in a heart-wrenching 10 inning game to take their first section championship under current Head Coach Marco DiRuocco.

Senior catcher Alex Beckett drew a bases loaded walk in the bottom of the 10th inning to bring in the winning run for Harrison and MVP Max Bruckner pitched 3 2/3 innings in relief to pick up his third win for Harrison in four postseason games.

Harrison will advance to play Tuesday in the state regional final game.

Other Sports News:

North Carolina, Here We Come

Junior southpaw standout Sean Hagan of Larchmont and outfielder Jimmy Brennan of Airmont will be ready for action on Friday when the St. John’s University baseball team opens play in the NCAA Baseball Tournament.

The Red Storm, making their 34th national tournament appearance in program history—a mark that ranks tied for eighth all-time—meet East Carolina University (35-22-1), which is one of four Conference USA teams in the bracket after receiving an at-large bid.

Sixth-seeded North Carolina (44-14) also received an at-large bid and is one of seven ACC teams in the field. Cornell (31-15-1), which is appearing in its first NCAA Tournament since 1977, won the Ivy League championship to earn an automatic bid.

St. John’s (37-21) secured an automatic bid by winning a conference-record seventh Big East Championship crown, St. John's (37-21), and was selected as a No. 3 seed.

St. John’s debuts against ECU at 1 p.m. at Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill, NC.

Hourihan sets mark as Red Dragons bow:

Senior reliever Brendan Hourihan of Yorktown Heights set a school record with his 72nd career pitching appearance, but the SUNY Cortland baseball team fell a run short, losing to the University of St. Thomas (MN), 7-6, in an elimination game at the NCAA Division III World Series at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute, WI. Hourihan, a graduate of Lakeland HS, broke the record previously held by Chris Fuller, who pitched from 1996-99. Left-fielder Andrew Pezzuto of Hastings went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a walk as the Red Dragons finished 2-2 at the Series, and finished fourth nationally at the eight-team tournament. Tim Panetta of Mount Kisco went 0-for-1 in a pinch-hitting role as Cortland completed the season with a 41-9-1 record for the sixth 40-win campaign in school history.

NBA legend Twyman Left Memorable Legacy

Basketball Hall of Famer Jack Twyman, remembered as much for helping a paralyzed teammate as for being one of the National Basketball Association’s top scorers in the 1950s, has died at 78.

Twyman died Wednesday at a Cincinnati hospice of complications from an aggressive form of blood cancer, his son, Jay Twyman, said.
“He died peacefully with family members at his side,” said Twyman, a Rye resident. “He was a great man, a devoted husband and father and a tremendous grandfather.”

Twyman is also survived by his wife, Carole, three daughters and 14 grandchildren, including former Rye High basketball players .

Twyman, a Pittsburgh native, played for the University of Cincinnati and spent 11 seasons in the NBA with the Rochester and Cincinnati Royals.
He averaged a career-high 31.2 points per game in the 1959-60 season, playing in six All-Star games. Twyman scored 15,840 points in his career and was inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983. Twyman was also the broadcaster who first saw Willis Reed pop out of the tunnel at Madison Square Garden in game seven of the NBA Finals.

“What he accomplished in his lifetime was really the equivalent of three lifetimes,” Jay Twyman continued, referring to his father's success in basketball and business, and his devotion to Maurice Stokes and other friends and family members.

In 1958, after Stokes was left paralyzed when he suffered a head injury during a game and fell into a coma, Twyman became his guardian to help Stokes receive medical benefits. For many years NBA players would gather at a resort in the Catskills to play in a fund-raising exhibition game that became an annual tradition to raise money for needy former players.

Twyman’s daughter, Lisa Bessone of Santa Fe, NM, described her father as someone who was “larger than life and who always gave 110 percent to everything he did. He believed every day was a gift, and that’s how he approached his life.”

Funeral arrangements were pending Thursday, Bessone said.

Weekly Sports Poll:

Both the Yankees and Mets have surprised fans this season. This week’s sports poll asks ?