New York: Unbeaten Ludden survives wacky night

Infielders live for the day when they might actually execute the hidden-ball trick to tag out an unsuspecting opponent on the base paths. And stealing signs put down by the catcher or the third-base coach are not only permissible, it’s considered an art form.

And then on the other hand you have Bob Weismore, who turned his back on a gift and politely refused to benefit from an infraction of the rules that was his own doing. It cost Westhill a chance to win an important Syracuse-area game over the weekend but reinforced the frequently ignored concept that winning isn’t everything.

Bishop Ludden (Syracuse)'s 11-9 victory over Westhill (Syracuse) on Friday night at Alliance Bank Stadium actually didn’t go into the books until Saturday morning when Weismore dropped the protest that he had lodged during the confusion in the wild seventh inning. It improved Ludden’s record to 10-0 and dropped Westhill, the defending New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class B champion, to 6-4.

Here’s what happened:

Ludden broke open a close game with seven runs in the top of the seventh to build a seemingly safe 11-3 lead. But Westhill began to rally in rather quick fashion, and the lead was trimmed to 11-8 when Cory Hewitt (remember that name) crossed the plate.

The Warriors plated their ninth run moments later with two outs, at which time Ludden coach Ted Klamm popped out of the dugout to point out that Hewitt was in the game illegally. Hewitt was Westhill’s starting pitcher, had been removed for a pinch-runner in the third inning and then legally re-entered the lineup in the fourth to resume his work on the mound. But when he was removed from the game later, it should have marked the end of his night on the field.

Instead, Weismore had absent-mindedly put him back in the game and he scored the run that cut the margin to 11-8. And that’s where things really got squirrely. The umpires agreed with Klamm that the infraction constituted the final out of the game, ending it with Ludden ahead 11-9. Just to cover his proverbial bases, Weismore lodged a protest.

An hour later, the umpires continued untangling the conundrum and realized that they had somehow made their ruling on the presumption that Hewitt was still on base. Once they realized that he had already scored, they determined that they could not "un-ring the bell" and remove his run from the scoreboard. The game would have to resume Saturday with the potential tying run at the plate for Westhill.

And Wesimore wanted absolutely no part of that.

"Just because you make a mistake and get away with it, it doesn’t make it right," Weismore told The Post-Standard.

Though he had filed the protest to protect his team just in case he had been wrong about being wrong, for lack of a better expression, Weismore said he never intended to resume the game. He contacted his captains and sent word to Klamm that the game would go into the books as a Ludden victory.

"I can’t believe what a classy move it was to drop the protest," Klamm told the newspaper. "Bob is teaching his kids a life lesson: 'No.1, I screwed up. No. 2, because I screwed up, Ludden deserved to win the game.’ "

Rochester East senior Alex Ortiz hit three triples to tie the presumed state record with 26 for his career as the Orientals beat Freddie Thomas 15-5 on Friday. Ortiz tripled 16 times last spring to set the single-season record. Marcus Way of Honeoye tripled 26 times from 2005-08.

Eight of the state's top 25 Class AA softball teams as well as three other ranked schools are scheduled to play in the 30th annual this weekend in Binghamton.

The 16-school affair is probably the best in-season event on the New York softball schedule. Chenango Valley is not back to defend its title, but there will certainly be a worthy successor. In Class AA alone, No. 3 Horseheads, No. 8 North Rockland, No. 10 Cicero-North Syracuse, No. 13 Valley Central, No. 14, Bethlehem, No. 19 Webster Schroeder, No. 20 Williamsville North and No. 25 Binghamton are in the field.

Valley Central (Montgomery) versus Williamsville North shapes up as one of the featured first-round games.

The Morabito champion used to be a sure bet for also collecting a NYSPHSAA championship at the end of the season. Beginning with Eastchester in 1990, eight straight Morabito winners went on to win state crowns, but it didn’t happen again until Cicero-North Syracuse pulled it off seven years later. This year’s winner will be trying to become the first to pull off the tournament double since Susquehanna Valley in 2005.

West Babylon midfielder Alyssa Murray, a Division I recruit and the Long Island leader in assists this spring, is done for the season after tearing the ACL in her right knee. She is expected to undergo surgery later this month.

Murray was injured April 20 in West Babylon's 10-9 loss to Bay Shore, which triggered a four-game losing streak for the previously No. 3 team in the New York State Sportswriters Association Class A rankings. Murray, a Syracuse University signee and a 2009 All-American, had 47 assists in just eight games this spring. She finishes her career with a state-record 279 assists.

* Lancaster senior softball player Ashley Snider broke the school record with her 119th career hit in a 4-2 win over Frontier. Snider, a fifth-year varsity player, also holds Lancaster records for career doubles, triples and home runs.

* Queensbury scored a 3-0 softball victory Friday to snap South Glens Falls' 93-game winning streak in the Foothills Council dating to April 12, 2004. SGF is 139-5 in the league since 2001. The rematch is May 17 at Queensbury.

* Monsignor Farrell captured 16 of 19 events Sunday at the Staten Island Boys Track and Field Championships to earn its 18th consecutive team title. Farrell’s Cory Duggan, winner of the pole vault (14 feet, 6 inches) and second in the long jump (21-1.75), was named the outstanding field athlete.