Barone named AAPB Manager of Year
Jamestown native and 2025 Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame inductee Anthony Barone has added another impressive entry to his baseball resume. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Milkmen
North Dakota State University quarterback Trey Drake, a 2023 Jamestown High School graduate, throws a pass against Fordham during action last week in Fargo, N.D. Photo courtesy of Zachary Lucy | NDSU Athletics
Jamestown native and 2025 Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame inductee Anthony Barone has added another impressive entry to his baseball resume. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Milkmen
North Dakota State University quarterback Trey Drake, a 2023 Jamestown High School graduate, throws a pass against Fordham during action last week in Fargo, N.D. Photo courtesy of Zachary Lucy | NDSU Athletics
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The Milwaukee Milkmen will meet Cleburne tonight in Game 2 of the American Association of Professional Baseball best-of-three East Division series.
Leading the way is manager Anthony Barone.
The Jamestown native and 2025 Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame inductee has added another impressive entry to his resume.
How does 2026 AAPB Manager of the Year sound?
The announcement, which was made earlier this week, was the result of the Milkmen's 12-win improvement over the 2025 season. Finishing 58-42 during the regular season, Milwaukee opened the postseason Wednesday night with a 4-1 Game 1 victory over Cleburne. Jhordany Mezquita (2-0), one of four Milkmen pitchers, was the winner, giving up just two hits, striking out seven and walking one in 6 1-3 innings.
For Barone, who joined the Milwaukee staff in 2019 as the team's hitting/bench coach and was named the manager in 2020, the Milkmen's success has become a regular occurrence. In his first year at the helm, Barone led the Milkmen to the American Association championship. He followed that with playoff berths in 2021 and 2022, and the Eastern Division title in 2023.
Furthermore, Barone has coached internationally with Merida, Mexico in the World Baseball Softball Confederation, and in Dubai, United Arab Emirates with Baseball United.
Upon graduating from Jamestown High School in 1997, he continued his baseball journey at Jamestown Community College where he was named one of the school's 50 greatest all-time athletes and at Felician (New Jersey) College; returned to Jamestown CC in 2001 as the assistant baseball coach and was promoted to head coach in 2005; spent 2012-13 as an assistant coach at Division I Cal State-Bakersfield; managed Wellsville in the New York Collegiate Baseball League in 2013; and managed the Jamestown Jammers of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League for four seasons, highlighted by winning the league title in 2018 when he was named the Manager of the Year.
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Trey Drake (Jamestown/Jamestown) turned in a nice performance in North Dakota State's 38-0 victory over Fordham before 15,212 fans at the Fargodome last Saturday.
Upon relieving starting quarterback Nathan Hayes, Drake completed 3 of 4 passes for 35 yards. His longest connection was for 19 yards.
A junior, Drake played in three games last season as the team's No 3 quarterback behind Cole Payton and Hayes. The son of Ben and Karen Drake, Drake was a MVFC Honor Roll in 2023 and 2024, and a MVFC Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award recipient in 2024.
A 2023 Jamestown High School graduate, he led the Red & Green to a 34-7 record, four league titles, two Section VI titles and one regional championship. Along the way, he passed for 6,158 yards and 72 touchdowns -- both school records -- while completing 59% of his passes.
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Paxton Liddell is only an eighth-grader at Chautauqua Lake Central School, but he has already turned some heads with his play on the gridiron.
A rising quarterback, Paxton has spent the last two offseasons playing with 7×7 teams from Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. Rostered on a 14U team as a 13-year-old, he impressed enough to ultimately earn an invitation to a prospect camp at Penn State University at the end of June where he was the only eighth-grader.
"It was nice to see his arm strength," said Josh Liddell, Paxton's dad. "There didn't seem to be a big gap between him and the older kids. ... He looked like he fit in with the guys who were two or three years older."
Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton varsity head coach Ty Harper said that "given Paxton's work ethic, I'm not surprised whatsoever that he had a fantastic showing at Matt Campbell's Penn State football camp."
Harper added: "He is an extremely talented player with a bright future in the sport of football. What's even more impressive is that Paxton is a kind, respectful and accountable young man. He possesses all of the tools to be successful, on and off the field."
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The Fredonia State women’s volleyball team pushed its record to 3-0 Wednesday with a 28‑26, 25‑22, 25‑21 sweep over Hilbert in Dods Hall.
Kylie O’Brien (Jamestown/Jamestown) paced the Blue Devils with 12 kills, while Donnilynn Sheldon (Randolph/Randolph) added eight kills on .615 hitting with four blocks. Maeve Musielak finished with five kills and nine digs. Setter Molly Cassidy totaled 18 assists and 10 digs while Olivia Boswell totaled nine assists and 11 digs.
Fredonia totaled 32 kills, 11 aces, and eight team blocks, rallying from 20-14 down to steal the first set before leading the rest of the night.
O'Brien, a senior, was named First-Team All-SUNYAC in 2025 when she was also named to the academic all-district team. Meanwhile, Sheldon, a sophomore, was a Second-Team All-SUNYAC last season.
Other area players on the Blue Devils' roster are Maddie Saunders (Fredonia/Fredonia), Keara Kincaid (Westfield/Westfield) and Kylie Unruh (Little Valley/Cattaraugus-Little Valley).