AMHERST — Turners Falls High School is heading back to the finals, and head coach Gary Mullins added perhaps the most significant milestone to his storied Hall-of-Fame high school coaching resume.
Junior catcher Gabby Arzuaga provided all the offense the Indians needed with a two-run third-inning single, and Mullins earned his 1,000th career coaching victory during a 3-1 Western Massachusetts Division III Softball Tournament semifinal victory over Mount Everett Regional School on a windswept Thursday afternoon at UMass/Amherst’s Sortino Field.
Second-seeded Turners (21-1) advances to its 13th consecutive WMass final Saturday at noon against fourth-seeded Hoosac Valley High School (14-7), which used a big seventh-inning rally to upset top-seed, previously unbeaten Monson High School, 5-1, in the opener.
The Indians broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the third inning.
Senior center fielder Hailey Whipple got the rally started with a grounder deep into the hole on the left side. Eagles shortstop Gwendolyn Carpenter made a diving stab and tried to throw out Whipple, who beat the throw.
Aly Murphy came up and hit a chopper that deflected of the glove of pitcher Eagles Chandler DeGrenier. Then another tough bounce glanced off Carpenter’s glove behind the second base bag, allowing Whipple to scamper to third. After Murphy stole second, Arzuaga followed with a hard single past the diving Carpenter into left field to score Whipple and Murphy for the early 2-0 advantage.
Murphy made a great slide at home to avoid the high tag from Morgan DeGrenier, as home plate umpire Greg LeDuc had perfect position on the play.
Eagles head coach Kurt DeGrenier wasn’t so sure and aggressively argued the call, even sarcastically asking LeDuc if he could appeal to Mullins, who smiled after the play as though he thought his team may have caught a break. DeGrenier’s appeal went for naught, and the Indians retained their two-run lead.
Arzuaga was just happy to be able to get the key hit when they needed it.
“I kept trying to pull that low outside pitch, and I got just enough of it to put it in play,” she said.
Third-seeded Mt. Everett (18-4) threatened in the top of the fourth. Devan Galli reached on sophomore third baseman Abby Loynd’s throwing error and advanced to third on Morgan DeGrenier’s single (DeGrenier advanced to second on the throw). But Phillips was able to strike out Chandler DeGrenier to get out of the inning unscathed.
Turners tacked on its third run in the bottom of the frame when Loynd lined a one-out single to center field, then as she broke for second on a steal attempt, junior right fielder Melissa Hersey blasted a double over left fielder Kearsten Cutlip’s head, allowing Loynd to score standing up.
“I’m not pleased (with the lack of hitting),” said Mullins. “I want us to hit the ball better. But we got a big hit from Gabby and a big hit from Melissa, so that was nice.”
The Eagles — who were the last team to beat Turners at Sortino field in the 2013 WMass final — refused to go away quietly and finally broke the shutout in the top of the sixth.
Carpenter hit a shot to third that Loynd was unable to knock down and reached on the infield single. After Marion DeVoti popped out to first baseman Murphy, Galli lined a single to left field that moved Carpener to second. Emily Coon followed that up by smacking a single up the middle to score Carpenter.
A double steal moved runners to second and third with only one out before Phillips escaped further damage by fanning Morgan DeGrenier and getting Chandler DeGrenier to pop out to Murphy.
Phillips struck out eight, walked none and scattered six hits in the complete-game win.
“Mac had trouble gripping the ball but she battled,” said Mullins. “With Mac you always have a chance, and we gave her a couple of runs to play with.”