Chris Gruarin, head baseball coach at Williamsville East High School in East Amherst, N.Y., is stepping away indefinitely after being accused of throwing a game for a more favorable playoff seed.
According to Sports Illustrated, citing reports by The Buffalo News, the decision comes after Hamburg coach Derek Hill made a written accusation that Williamsville East tanked a game against the Bulldogs on Tuesday for a better position in the Section VI Class AA playoffs, The Buffalo News reported on Friday.
Chris Gruarin, head baseball coach at Williamsville East High School in East Amherst, N.Y., is stepping away indefinitely after being accused of throwing a game for a more favorable playoff seed.
According to Sports Illustrated, citing reports by The Buffalo News, the decision comes after Hamburg coach Derek Hill made a written accusation that Williamsville East tanked a game against the Bulldogs on Tuesday for a better position in the Section VI Class AA playoffs, The Buffalo News reported on Friday.
The game in question saw Hamburg down 7-0 and come-from-behind to win 14-7.
Details cited by The Buffalo News, as reported by the New York State Sportwriters Assocaition:
• Up 7-3 in the seventh inning, Williamsville East's pitcher walked two batters, after which the coach called his players on the field to a meeting on the mound. That's when the farce started.
• A routine ground ball to the right side of the infield ended with the first baseman not stepping on the base. The next five batters walked, giving Hamburg an 8-7 lead.
• Hill's letter said the Williamsville East third baseman left the field at one point.
• With Hamburg now leading by seven runs in the bottom of the seventh, Williamsville East went down quietly — including the second batter of the inning reaching third base safely only to be tagged after stepping off he base.
Hill said that with Williamsville East’s efforts in throwing the game, they will face ninth-seeded Olmsted/Culinary/Emerson in the Class AA opening round. A victory for the Flames would then position them to take on top-seeded Hutch Tech in the quarterfinal round.
In the letter, Hill mentioned that Buffalo Public Schools historically “do not fare well” against teams from outside the district. Hill added that going up against two-straight BPS teams would allow Williamsville East to rest its top pitcher until the semifinal round.
Williamsville East athletic director Melissa Spada provided a statement to The Buffalo News, noting that Gruarin “will be voluntarily stepping away until further notice”:
“Coach Gruarin took full responsibility for Tuesday night's game against Hamburg and recognizes the impact this has had on the student-athletes and community.”
Hill sent a letter, obtained by The Buffalo News, to Section VI baseball chairman Robert Parry to express his allegations.
“While we understand that strategy plays a role in competitive sports, deliberately manipulating the outcome of a game raises significant ethical and procedural concerns that affect the integrity of the sectional tournament as a whole,” Hill said in his letter.
More from Hill's letter:
“At the core of high school athletics lies a commitment to sportsmanship, integrity, and fair play. These are not abstract ideals — they are foundational values meant to guide student-athletes as they develop both as competitors and as young adults. When a team chooses to underperform for strategic advantage, it sends a troubling message: that the ends justify the means, and that success is worth more than honesty or effort.
“While this may not be a violation of an explicit rule, it certainly violates the spirit in which high school athletics are intended to be played. If left unaddressed, it risks normalizing behavior that prioritizes manipulation over merit, and strategic avoidance over genuine competition.”
