Noah Barnes hurled seven shutout innings and Frontier Regional School kicked off the 2016 baseball season with a 1-0 independent victory over Palmer High School in an independent baseball game Friday afternoon at Valiton Field in South Deerfield.
The Red Hawks needed every scoreless inning from Barnes because Palmer starting and losing pitcher Zach Handzel was equal to the task, shuting out the host Hawks for the first five innings. Frontier finally got a run in the sixth inning to give Barnes the lead.
With one out, Seth Gewanter singled and stole second before Brandon Bryant moved him to third with a single. Bryant then stole second while Kade Gewanter was battling Handzel in a long at-bat. Handzel eventually won the matchup with Gewanter, striking him out for the second out of the frame and bringing up Bailey Powers with two outs. Powers worked the count to 2-2 when Handzel threw a pitch that went through the legs of the catcher for a passed ball that allowed Seth Gewanter to come in with the go-ahead and eventual game-winning run.
“I’ll take it any way I can get it,” joked first-year coach Chris Williams on the game-winner, which gave him his first varsity victory.
That was all Barnes needed, as he finished off his five-hit shutout by pitching a scoreless seventh inning. Barnes finished with five strikeouts and one walk in the complete-game victory.
“I was very impressed and very proud of him,” Williams said. “He was right around the plate the entire time. He trusted our defense and our guys made the plays when it counted. It took a lot of charisma to get out of some tight spots.”
Handzel finished with five strikeouts in six innings, allowing five hits and two walks and the one unearned run.
The game also marked the first varsity hit for Bryce Jordan, who hit a line-drive single to center in his first varsity at-bat in the bottom of the third inning.
Kyle Spencer doubled for the Red Hawks, leading off the fifth inning with the hit, but was stranded on second. Ben Arnold also had one hit.
Rod Squier led Palmer with two hits.
Greenfield 2, Mahar 0 (8) — Owen Schilling tripled and scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning and pitched 2-plus innings of scoreless relief to earn the win as Greenfield High School opened the season with a thrilling, 2-0, victory over Mahar Regional School in a Hampshire League crossover game Friday afternoon in Orange.
Greenfield out-hit the Senators, 10-2, on the day but was unable to score a run against Mahar starting pitcher Hunter Richardson, who struck out eight and walked three in 7 innings of work. Green Wave starter Ben Poirier was just as solid, allowing just two hits and three walks in 5 innings, striking out four. Schilling came on in relief and was electric, striking out six of the eight batters he faced, not allowing a hit or a walk, and picking up the win in relief.
Schilling also started the game-winning rally in the top of the eighth inning. With one out, he launched a triple to right-center field to end the day for Richardson. Mahar reliever Sam Paul was greeted by Green Wave catcher Andrew Toritto who plated Schilling with an RBI single up the middle. Toritto moved to third on a Axel Vasquez single, and then scored on Sam Kennedy’s RBI groundout to first.
Schilling struck out the side in order in the bottom of the eighth to close out the win.
Schilling, Toritto, Tyler Townsley and Josiah McBarry each finished with two hits on the day, while Zach Avery added a double, and Tyler Jacques stole a base.
Mason Dow and Jake LaCasse each had one hit for Mahar.