Leading off today: George Mason has scored a nice coup by getting an oral commitment yesterday from 6-foot-4 Mount Vernon guard Sherrod Wright, The Journal News reported.

   Wright will sign a National Letter of Intent to play for the Colonial Athletic Conference school on Monday, having eliminated Central Florida and Kansas State from his final list. Wright, a five-year varsity player, also had offers from the likes of Oklahoma State, Marquette and Providence but was looking for the chance to earn early minutes while still being part of a successful program.

   Coached by Jim Larranaga, George Mason reached the Final Four in 2006.

   "The big schools is where you get noticed," Wright said. "But the tournament is where you get known."

   Wright averaged 23.2 points per game as a senior and leaves Mount Vernon with four sectional and two NYSPHSAA championships.

   Milestone alert: Lucas Klirsfeld and Eric Carrasquillo drove in two runs apiece for Long Beach in a 6-2 win over Elmont to give 36th-years baseball coach Carmine Lombardo his 400th career win.

   "Actually, I never thought I would coach this long to get 400 wins," Lombardo told Newsday. "I thought I would have

retired by now. I was never thinking about it until the latter part of last year. It's exciting and a nice accomplishment, but it takes a lot of years of coaching."

   Dramatic finish: Senior shortstop Ed Marchand hit a two-out, two-strike walkoff grand slam in the seventh inning in C.G. Finney's 8-7 baseball win over Honeoye in the opening round of the Midlakes Tournament. Marchand finished with five RBIs.

   League shuffle: As Phil Blackwell points out, it was a big deal when most of Section 3's Class AA schools exited the Onondaga High School League to form the Central New York Counties League.

   The new league stretches moderately far and wide geographically, a factor in Utica Proctor and Rome Free Academy expressing a preference earlier this year for playing in the Tri-Valley League. The TVL members voted against expansion, fearing Proctor and RFA were too large.

   Well, Proctor and RFA appealed to Section 3 — and won. On Monday, the section ruled that RFA and Proctor should play in the Tri-Valley League in soccer, girls basketball, wrestling, volleyball, tennis, track and lacrosse, among other sports. Football and hockey will continue to be administrated under Federation scheduling, and the two schools will have to make their own arrangements in boys basketball and baseball.