Defending state champ Horseheads advances to final four; Waverly falls

Defending state champion Horseheads is headed back to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association final four after getting its second pitching gem of the 2026 Class AA state baseball tournament.

Mason Markle followed teammate Cooper Ball’s 1-hitter in Tuesday’s subregional with a 5-hit shutout in a 4-0 victory over Section 6’s Hamburg in a regional final Friday, June 5 at ESL Ballpark in Rochester.

The Blue Raiders (19-7) will play either Section 2’s Bethlehem or Section 3’s West Genesee in a state semifinal at 4 p.m. Friday, June 12 at Binghamton’s Mirabito Stadium. The championship game is scheduled for 4 p.m. June 13 at the same site.

In the first game of two at ESL Ballpark on Friday, Section 4 champion Waverly’s season came to a close with a 5-4 loss to Section 6’s Grand Island in a Class A regional final.

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Markle struck out 10 and walked none to follow his 5-hit shutout in the Blue Raiders’ 4-0 win over Vestal in the deciding Game 3 of the Section 4 championship series.

Markle threw 73 of his 96 pitches for strikes. He also came up big with his glove, starting an inning-ending double play on a grounder back to the mound in the fourth inning.

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Kegan Monahan broke a scoreless tie with a 2-run double in the third inning.

Catcher’s interference with Chase Meshanic at the plate and two outs got the rally started. AJ Sheehan walked and Monahan followed with a line drive that Hamburg’s left fielder couldn’t catch as he stumbled to the ground.

Markle added an RBI single in the fourth that drove in Hunter Matkosky for a 3-0 advantage. Markle’s ground ball in the sixth was unable to be fielded and Lyncoln Bennett scored with Horseheads’ fourth run.

Ball went 2-for-4 for Horseheads, which also got singles from Sheehan, Bennett, Matkosky, and a double from Beckett Doane.

Jason Sekuterski went the first 6 innings for Hamburg (21-3) and allowed 4 runs (2 earned) on 6 hits. He struck out 7 and walked 1.

Grand Island center fielder Andrew Kozlowski capped a big game at the plate by making a sliding catch on a potential tying hit from Waverly’s Matthias Welles to end the game.

Kozlowski’s 2-run triple in the fourth gave Grand Island a 2-1 lead. After Waverly knotted the score 3-3, he had an RBI single during a two-run fifth inning.

Ronin Ault went 2-for-4 with 2 doubles, a run, and an RBI for Waverly. He doubled off the glove of Grand Island’s left fielder with two outs in the seventh and was poised to score the tying run if Kozlowski didn’t come up with his catch on a sinking, soft liner.

Daltton Davis went 3-for-3 for Waverly, including an RBI single in the sixth that got the Wolverines within 5-4.

Caden Sharkey went the distance for Grand Island. He allowed 7 hits, 3 earned runs, struck out 9, and didn’t surrender a walk.

Pitchers for Waverly were Porter Daddona (3 1/3 innings, 2 runs), Axel Murray (1 2/3 innings, 3 unearned runs) and Jack Pipher (1 inning, no runs).

Waverly finished with a 22-5 record that included the Section 4 Class A title.

Grand Island (20-4) advances to a state semifinal at 4 p.m. Friday, June 12 at Binghamton University.

This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Mason Markle pitched a shutout for Horseheads in a state quarterfinal