Sports this 'n' that

It's looking like the Tri-City Valleycats will miss the playoffs for the 2nd straight season. After dropping 3 of 4 to Hudson Valley, the 'Cats are 6 games behind Stedler Division leader Vermont with 8 games left, including tonight's home game vs. Aberdeen. A loss to the Ironbirds would finish Tri-City, as they would be eliminated from playoff contention with a week to go. To think that just a couple of weeks ago, Tri-City had reached first place in the division, then promptly fell right back into second, and now, third.

I honestly think manager Morgan Ensberg will return next season to allow some stability in the dugout. It's either that, or see if former manager Ed Romero is on speed dial.
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Troy's other summer sports team, the Fighting Irish, lost their regular season finale to Watertown, 14-12, on August 26. They're just waiting to find out when they'll start the post-season. As I've reiterated often, it doesn't help when the local press ignores the team due to financial/personnel constraints, and game scores aren't posted on the website until as little as 48 hours after the games are played.  At least the Irish are assured of continuing their season.
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The Mets will have an interleague series with old rival Houston this weekend, but, due to the city of Houston still recovering from last weekend's storm, the Mets & Astros will have an unscheduled day off on Friday. Instead, they'll play Friday's game Saturday afternoon as the first half of a split-admission double-header. Meanwhile, Houston's two college teams, Rice and the University of Houston, are still trying to figure out when they can get back to their campuses after starting their football seasons in, of all places, Australia, a week and a half ago. At least Rice has this week off.

The NFL's two Texas teams, the Texans & Cowboys, have called off their annual in-state rivalry game after it was originally moved to the Temple of Excess (AT & T Stadium) in Arlington. Now, try figuring out the pretzel logic of that move.
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High school beat: To the surprise of, well, no one, Troy High's golf, soccer, and women's tennis teams have all stumbled out of the gate in this first week of the season. The women's volleyball team will open their season later today at home vs. Averill Park, while the women's soccer team has their home opener a couple of hours later vs. Colonie, hoping to build on momentum after dropping a double-overtime heartbreaker to Guilderland Tuesday afternoon, 2-1. The boys' game between Guilderland and Troy was not reported to the press, but, given how coach Mike Murnane's club has struggled since joining the Suburban Council, assume the Dutchmen won that, too.

Good thing football season starts tomorrow.
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I don't know where the kids at Upstate Sports Zone got their information, but they're reporting that the September 15 football game between Troy & LaSalle at Sutton Field would be moved up one night to the 14th. The site was founded by a pair of LaSalle students a year ago, so you'd think they'd know if there would be any changes, but every other source I've checked says that the game will be played as scheduled on the 15th. My first thought was that maybe LaSalle decided to move the game due to a Jewish holiday, but Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur come in the 2nd half of September, so maybe the good group at USZ got their dates mixed up. We'll see in 2 weeks.
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Condolences to the family of former Villanova basketball coach Rollie Massimino, who passed away yesterday. Massimino led the Wildcats to the NCAA title in 1985, upsetting Big East rival Georgetown in a game that prompted the late New York Daily News cartoonist, Bill Gallo, to draw a panel that had Pope John Paul II being informed that "The Protestants just slam-dunked the Jesuits", in reference to the religious leanings of the two schools.