WORCESTER — Joanie Mullins summed it up best.
“It wasn’t much of a stag party, was it?” quipped the wife of Turners Falls High School head coach Gary Mullins after the Indians advanced to the MIAA State Division III Softball Tournament championship game with a 6-0 victory over Tahanto Regional High School in the semifinals Tuesday evening at Rockwood Field.
The Indians (23-1) advance to face North Sectional champion Austin Preparatory School of Reading for the state championship on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Rockwood Field.
The Cougars (22-3) earned their spot Tuesday with a 3-1 win over Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational-Technical High School — the same program that beat Turners in the 2014 final but later had to vacate the crown when its pitcher was discovered to be ineligible.
The Indians took the drama out of this one right away, scoring four first-inning runs.
They wasted little time getting to Stags pitcher Erin Ames. After leadoff hitter Aly Murphy lined out to shortstop, senior second baseman Jenna Putala hit a deep fly ball that hung up in the swirling wind and carried over the head of right fielder Sarah Ricker, who got twisted around and couldn’t recover in time. Putala was able to scamper to third with a standup triple and scored on Gabby Arzuaga’s soft liner that just got past shortstop Makenzy Herron.
Mackenzie Phillips came up and hit a high fly ball to right field that again caused Ricker problems and fell in just before she could get to it, sending Arzuaga to second (both players were replaced by courtesy runners, Lexi Lacey for Arzuaga, Olivia Whittier for Phillips).
Ames got Cassidhe Wozniak to pop out to third, but Jordyn Fiske hit a rocket off the top of third baseman Mikayla Herron’s glove for a single that scored Lacey, and both Whittier and Fiske moved up on the throw. It proved to be significant, because Melissa Hersey came up and smacked a hard grounder through the right side to plate both runners and extend the Indians’ lead to four.
It’s exactly how Mullins was hoping it would happen.
“I think you always want to get off to a fast start,” he said, “and it just so happens that we hit a couple balls to the right side that got over her head. (Getting an early lead) certainly relaxes you a little bit defensively.”
And, oh yeah, it was more than enough run support for dominant Phillips, who allowed single hits in the third, fifth and sixth innings and did not walk a batter for the third straight game. She managed a postseason-low six strikeouts, which didn’t seem to surprise Mullins.
“I actually think I underestimated this club,” he admitted afterward. “I was really impressed with their bats. I thought they had really good mechanics at the plate. “We were able to get through the order the first time around, but I was worried about the second and third at-bats, so we changed our sequence and how we attacked the batters, and Philly did her job, she located the ball well.”
Turners picked up a fifth run in the bottom of the second when Hailey Whipple’s liner to right field got over the head of Ricker, who came in too far and had to retreat. Whipple stopped at third with a standup triple, and Murphy brought her home with a grounder to short.
The Indians scored their final run in the fourth, as Abby Loynd battled back from an 0-2 count to draw a one-out walk. She moved to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on Whipple’s fly out to right field and scored on Murphy’s line single to left field.
Turners made two textbook defensive plays during the final two innings.
In the sixth, the Indians executed another well-timed pickoff when Makenzy Herron was caught leaning the wrong way after singling to left field.
Then in the seventh, Mikayla Heron reached on Putala’s throwing error but, after Brainna Hrushefsky struck out, Phillips (two putouts, four assists) gloved a one-hop comebacker and started a 1-6-3 double play to end it.