We’re only part way through the summer of ‘08 but a handful of ‘09 grads have already given their commitments. I’ll have more detail in the future, but here are the guys who are locked up:

• Dan Zlotnick (above), LHP/OF, Somers — Vermont


• Tyler Donovan, C, Iona Prep — Winthrop


• Mike Mercurio (right), SS, Kennedy — High Point


• Steven Roche, RHP, Iona Prep — High Point


• Anthony Cervone, RHP, Beacon — St. John’s

Tony Pinciaro has the breakdown of how HV was awarded the gold. You can read it here.

(UPDATE, 7/27, 3:30 p.m.) I talked to Tony myself and here are a few things I learned:

HV was up 16-2 on Western in the seventh inning of Saturday morning’s game before surrendering seven runs to make the score appear closer. As Tony wrote in today’s story, the HV guys watched Adirondack’s ballgame against New York City, as did the Central guys. Hudson Valley rooted for NYC, which its city counterparts to win to secure HV a spot in the gold-medal game. HOWEVER, if Adirondack won, Central would’ve played Adirondack for the gold. NYC rallied from 5-0 down to win 6-5, no doubt a pleasing result for Hudson Valley.

The gold-medal game started well for the green and gold, with Zack Graczyk of Carmel (right) cruising. He helped stake his club to a 2-0 lead before the skies opened, dumping rain and, eventually, giant hail on the Union-Endicott High School field. U-E’s groundscrew said it couldn’t prepare the field for play until noon on Sunday, so baseball chairman Drew Marino (a man from Mahopac some of you know) ruled HV the gold medalist based on it earning the No. 1 seed out of round-robin play.

Obviously, this wasn’t an ideal way to declare a winner, but it sounds like the decision makers had no choice.

Ironically, Hudson Valley received the short end of a similar exchange in 2004, the last time the ESGs were held in Binghamton. Rain washed out the gold-medal game and HV, the No. 2 seed, was awarded silver.

Check out this photo below from Journal News photog Vinny DiSalvio, who captures the silver medalist surveying the damage at U-E’s field yesterday. Amazing. It sounds like a vicious storm.

Hudson Valley had a lead part way through the gold-medal game in Binghamton when the Union-Endicott field was flooded. The remainder of the game was canceled and Hudson Valley was awarded the gold medal, its first under head coach Steve Greller in nine years.

The details are still coming in, so log on to our ESG blog. Tony Pinciaro will have the story.

In any event, what a year for LoHud baseball, huh? Three state championships, including one at the Class AA level, and a gold medal at the ESGs. Pretty sweet pull for the local guys…

A month or two ago I posted on the status of Sean Giblin, who’ll miss the entire 2008 season while rehabbing from shoulder surgery. Reporter Brian Heyman followed up in his weekly minor league feature and has some details. The former Pearl River stud is stuck watching baseball in Bradenton, Fla. as he gets his arm back into shape with hopes of throwing again next season. He told Brian the surgery was routine, which is a good sign. There’s no reason why he can’t come back 100%. Now it’s just a matter of killing time.

Hudson Valley will play for gold at 6 tonight by virtue of Adirondack’s loss earlier today and HV’s win over Western, 16-9. HV saw it bats finally awaken after three quiet games following a 14-run outburst over Adirondack in the opener.

Colleague Tony Pinciaro will cover tonight’s game and will have all the details here. Check there for details. I’m at tonights Mets game for work so Tony will have to give us some details.

The Hudson Valley baseball team fell to 2-2 after a 3-0 loss to defending gold medalist Long Island this afternoon. HV had won on a shutout of its own in the earlier game behind Suffern ace Robbie Aviles, who outdueled Mount St. Michael senior Thomas Cardona 3-0.

Still, HV’s predicament is this: It must beat Western tomorrow morning if it hopes to play for a medal. Western and Adirondack are both 3-1, and Long Island is 2-2. It’s very complicated, but if HV beats Western, Long Island loses to Central and Adirondack loses to NYC, then Hudson Valley will still have a chance to play for gold. If Hudson Valley wins it will play for some kind of medal no matter what.

On an interesting note, Sean Hagan had asked for the ball in the gold-medal game. It’ll be interesting to see if he pitches tomorrow vs. Western in what is a must-win game.

Anyway, day 2 of the tournament was not one for hitting stars. Tim Panetta of Fox Lane and Zack Graczyk of Carmel were the only players who had multiple hits.

HV beat Adriondack 14-2 in its opener behind Andrew Benkwitt of Mamaroneck and four RBI days by Anthony Iacomini of John Jay and Mike Orefice of Ketcham (below, rounding third after a two-run HR). HV then lost in extras to Central, but the box hasn’t been posted yet. You can get the results here when they are up.

Tony Pinciaro has a few more details on the game over on our ESG blog.

HV will need to win two — if not all three — of its remaining games if it wants to play for gold.

The honeymoon is over and so is the debate about which Hudson Valley ballclub is better. It’s time to find out, because the ESGs begin today in Binghamton.

For all the latest on the ESGs, you can log on to our Empire State Games blog and for news, photos and videos of the events you can check our our ESG home page.

The games will be played with wood bats this year, and we’ll soon find out whether Hudson Valley was built to compete with the lumber. Last summer it bashed its way into the gold medal game. This year it’ll likely be the arms that guide the green and yellow, and Steve Greller and his staff hope it’s all the way to a gold.

Thursday, July 24

HV vs. Adirondack, 12 p.m.; HV vs. Central, 3 p.m.

Friday, July 25

HV vs. NYC, 9 a.m.; HV vs. Long Island, 12 p.m.Saturday, July 26

HV vs. Western, 9 a.m.; bronze-medal game, 3 p.m. (if necessary); gold-medal game, 6 p.m. (if necessary)

Empire State Games begin with tonight’s opening ceremony, which has been moved indoors at Binghamton U because of a bad forecast. No word on whether sailing has been moved to the water fountain.

Like every year we’ll bring as much of the Games to you as possible. Don’t expect the kind of wall-to-wall coverage we had last year when they were in Westchester, for obvious reasons. But we’ve got boys lacrosse writer Jeff Gold and softball stud Tony Pinciaro going to as many events as possible in Binghamton. As long as the baseball team does well you’ll be hearing plenty about it.

You can access our ESG page here. It’ll have all of the stories, notes, and results posted once the Games begin. In the meantime you can go there for the features and previews we’ve already done.

For more immediate updates check the ESG blog.

New York State just released its all-state team. Just from looking at who was selected, it seems like the selections were made much more with the regular season in mind than playoffs. For example, Dan Zlotnick of Somers made fifth team in Class A even though Somers won the section. Four other Section 1 guys — Kiyota Gomi, Dan Sorine, Joey Malouf (of Beacon), and Brendan Hourihan — went ahead of him. Which is fine. Pro sports all base their season awards on regular season only. High school usually doesn’t, though. So this was unusual.

There are a few big names missing. The local CHSAA guys didn’t make any team. Nanuet’s Steve Prosapio hit in all but one game but is nowhere to be found in the Class B teams. Mike Rosenfeld was arguably Mamaroneck’s best player but didn’t make a team either.