Riverbats advance

Churchville-Chili's Jake Dennstedt allowed just one run over eight innings and Keith Meyer got his second save of the playoffs to lead the Genesee Riverbats to within one victory of the championship series in the New York Collegiate Baseball League playoffs.

After winning the Central Division title to advance to the playoffs for the first time in their three-year existence, the Riverbats defeated the Rochester Royals two-games-to-one in the quarterfinals on a Ryan Laboy home run in the bottom of the ninth inning in game three.

In the opener of the semifinals against the Allegany City Nitros, the Riverbats broke up a scoreless game in the fourth inning on a Dave Lehman (SUNY Brockport) sacrifice fly and Alex Sharick's RBI single for a 2-0 lead.

The winning run came in the eighth on doubles from Matt Bennage and Corey O'Neill. Meyer shut the door in the ninth with runners at second and third.

The winner of the best-of-three semifinals advances to play Saratoga, who had the best regular season record in the league, for the league championship.

August 6, 2006