Cortland Standard .net

The third time was the charm for Cortland’s Noah Barber.
The 14-year-old Cortland native won the 13-14 Year Old Boys’ Division of Major League Baseball’s Pitch, Hit & Run regional competition at Yankee Stadium Saturday.
Barber, a member of the Cortland High junior varsity baseball team, had finished second in the 11-12 Boys Division in 2013 and third in the Boys’ 13-14 Division last June, both events also at Yankee Stadium.
Barber said that prior experience wasn’t that much of an advantage for him this time around, his last in the competition due to his age. “I was a little more nervous than I was last year because I hadn’t won it yet,” he said. “It was nice to win it this year. I also enjoyed being able to stand in the batter’s box and see the field in front of me. It’s pretty cool to see your name in lights on the scoreboard, and we got to see batting practice and things (prior to attending the Yankees’ game with the Angels).
“It was pretty cool; everyone knew me from previous years, and I was the only one announced by his first name.”
Each of Saturday’s 24 paticipants in eight boys’ and girls’ age groups had won at their local and sectional levels before heading to Yankee Stadium. The Pitch, Hit & Run format saw each competitor throw six pitches at a target, hit balls off a tee and complete a timed sprint. The winners will learn on the final Sunday of June if their scores — compared with those of other winners around the country — are strong enough to get them to the All-Star Game for the final phase of the event.
“It would mean a lot to get (to the All-Star game), because I’m mainly doing this for Cortland,” he said. “I had a lot better score than last year — 1,105 compared to 990 or so.”
Barber gave credit to his coaches over the years for their part in his Pitch, Hit and Run success. That list includes his father, Chris Barber, as well as Ben Albright, Brandon Galutz, Rick Prunier and Sean May.
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TC3 Slugger Fogg
Player of the Year
DRYDEN — The honors keep piling up for Tompkins Cortland Community College baseball player Malik Fogg.
The sophomore out of Mount Vernon has been named the NJCAA Region III Baseball Player of the Year, the first Panther ever named the best in the region. Voting was done by the coaches from the 17 Region III teams.
Fogg was among the region leaders in most offensive categories. He led Region III and was third in the nation with 11 home runs, which also set a new TC3 record. His .477 batting average was fourth best in the region and fifth best in the nation, while also setting a new school record.
The current member of the NYCBL’s Syracuse Junior Chiefs had the best slugging percentage in the nation at .908, and was seventh in Region III with 44 runs batted in. His on-base percentage of .558 was second in the region and fifth in the nation.
Fogg is the sixth all-region selection in the history of TC3 baseball and just the second named to the first-team. He adds the Region III Player of the Year award to his previously earned Mid-State Athletic Conference Player of the Year award, becoming the first TC3 player in any sport to earn both distinctions in the same season.
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Contento Homecoming
Senior Games Success
This past Saturday’s track and field portion of the 2015 Empire State Senior Games was also used as a national qualifier, which benefited 1976 Cortland High graduate Chris Contento.
During the meet at the SUNY Cortland Stadium Complex, Contento qualified for the 2017 Senior Nationals while winning the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes, being part of the first place 4x100m relay squad and grabbing second in the 50-meter dash.
Contento currently is ranked among the Top 10 nationally in all three sprint events.