BFA-St. Albans-St. Johnsbury softball semifinals game notes

I will be covering the BFA-St. Albans-St. Johnsbury Division I softball semifinal for the Free Press and NSNsports.net this afternoon and did a little research on the game.

This is the third time BFA and St. Jay have meet in the D-I semifinals. BFA won 8-1 in 2002. This was the last time St. Jay made the semis. The Hilltoppers have a 1-5 all-time record in the Division I semifinals. The one time they won was back in 1978, an 11-8 win over the Comets. St. Jay went on to lose in the finals, 4-3, to Brattleboro.

The Hilltoppers are 4-1 all-time in Division II semis and are 2-2 in Division II title games. St. Johnsbury has been a D-I school since 1988. The 'Toppers are 29-34 in the playoffs all-time and 17-30 in Division I.

St. Johnsbury is 15-2 this season, with one-run losses to Essex (3-2) and BFA (2-1 on May 13 in St. Albans). The Hilltoppers are seeded fourth and advanced to the semis with a 21-0 win over South Burlington and a 4-3 win in eight innings over Mount Mansfield. St. Johnsbury has outscored opponents 205-47 this season.

BFA, the top seed, is 16-0 this season and has outscored opponents 155-16. The Comets, who are on track for their fifth undefeated season in program history, advanced to the semis with a 9-1 win over Rutland.

The Comets ended the regular season with three straight shutout wins and six overall. They have allowed a season-high of three runs three times. In 13 games, they have allowed one run or less.

BFA ended a streak of three straight seasons with out reaching the semifinals this year, it's longest drought of that length since 1985-88. BFA's last title game appearance was in 2007, a 6-2 loss to Essex. It's last win was 1-0 over Essex in the 2006 final. This win capped back-to-back undefeated seasons.

BFA is 12-7 all-time in the semifinals and 7-5 in title games. The Comets are 62-27 all-time in the playoffs.

The last time the Comets did not have a winning record was back in 1987.

Heading into the year's playoffs, the Comets ranked second all-time in softball playoff wins (61) and tied for second in titles won (seven).

Here's the Top 10, all divisions, ranked by number of wins (titles)

1. Brattleboro 72 (9)

2. BFA-St. Albans 61 (7)

3. Peoples Academy 59 (9)

4. Canaan 47 (7)

5. Enosburg 46 (5)

6. Essex 43 (5)

7. Missisquoi Valley 43 (3)

8. Thetford 42 (4)

9. Lamoille 42 (2)

10. Randolph 40 (6)

Hard'Ack Alpine ski race photo sales info

Thanks for checking out this link that aims to explain the ordering process for these photos.

First, if are visiting this link before 11 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2011 then you can still get instant 99-cent downloads or $1.99 4x6s of any image from this event.

After that time, you will only be able to purchase prints and the price of the 4x6 prints increases to $2.99 each.

Why the difference? I typically offer 99-cent downloads and $1.99 4x6s of images to school's that use me for their team and individual photos. Unfortunately, BFA-St. Albans is not one of these schools. That said, as a personal favor to a couple of the organizers of this event I agreed to bend the rules and allow a short window where those truly motivated to get their hands on these images can do so at a reduced rate.

If BFA-St. Albans ever choose to use me for their sports team and individual photos then any photo I take of any of their teams (and their opponents) will be available for 99-cent downloads.

I took over 2,000 images of this event. I don't expect you to weed through them all to find your favorite skier. And you shouldn't expect I would edit these photos individually before they are posted to the website.

That said, these images are high-quality and you can really zoom in the subject and see them clearly (unless I wasn't properly focused, which does happen). However, you can check the quality of any image by enlarging it on the screen. If it looks in focus, it will print in focus.

Here's a example.

This image - chosen at random - includes the original view as it appears on the gallery and a cropped version, equal to a 5x7. As you can tell, there's a lot of room to crop these images to make them look better.

Here's another randomly-chosen example - not all photos are taken from long range. I began shooting each skiier about 100 feet from me and continued until they were within about 25 feet. I'm guessing on average there are between 6-10 photos of each skiier on each run.

 

If you download an image, it's going to be uncropped. You will have to crop it to make it look better in most cases. If you order a print, I will crop it and it will be mailed to you. To purchase any photo from www.coldhollowphoto.com just choose and image, click buy and you have countless options for sizes, shapes, merchandise, etc ... and if I do say so myself, it's very reasonably priced.

If you have any trouble using my website, just email me: shawn@coldhollowphoto.com or click the 'email me' link at the top of page. I'll respond promptly.

Finally - to simplify the viewing of these photos - I've divided up the images into different galleries. Click here to see what they are named and how many photos are in each.

High school skiers decend upon Hard'ack

For the second year, the ski, snowboarding and sledding hill at Hard'Ack in St. Albans hosted a slalom ski race. Sure, the course is a little short - the best skiers could make the trek in about 20 seconds - but it was techincally difficult and very fan friendly.

I was stunned at how many parents were able to attend and the skiers didn't disappoint. Neither did the weather ... nor did the cheeseburgers and hot dogs. But I digress.

All in all it was a great day to spend outside photographing a sport that has never been included on my Cold Hollow Photo website. Boy did that ever change today. I have 2,150 images from today's event.

I arrived at the end of the boys first run and took 85 photos. (I missed the girls first run, but I made up for it, believe me.)

The girls second run gallery has a shade under 600 photos in it. I took photos of every skier as they came through the flush (look at me talking like a ski bum - actually I just learned that term yesterday from starter Matt Crawford.)

I maintained the same vantage point for the boys second run, the gallery from which has 587 photos - I got a little more judicious with my shots for the boys because I began to run out of memory card space (silly photo boy left his camera bag in the car, but then again I thought maybe I'd take 1,000 photos).

For the girls third run gallery (there are just over 400 photos) take from a bit higher on the course.

I moved to a lower vantage point for the boys third-run gallery (483 photos). I left before the end of the run to start the editing and uploading process - that will likely take about five hours when all is said and done. That said, I'm confident I the guys I missed in the third run are the guys I shot in the first run. Confused, don't be. Just look through each gallery (the photos are posted in the order the skiers came down the hill) and eventually you'll find the skier you are looking for.

If you are interested in ordering photos - here's a link explaining the process, some notes on cropping and a special offer that ends at 11 p.m on Saturday night.