Don’t bet against Turners Falls High School in a big game.
The Powertown took to the road for a huge early-season independent softball game in the Hampshire hills on Sunday afternoon. Thanks to an offense that pounded out 16 hits, including four from Aly Murphy and three from Gabby Arzuaga, and another sterling pitching performance from junior Peyton Emery, Turners blasted highly-regarded Hampshire Regional High School for a convincing 10-2 win in Westhampton.
“(Hampshire is) a very good softball team and our kids came out and played some very good softball,” offered veteran Turners coach Gary Mullins.
It was a matchup of two defending western Massachusetts champions, Hampshire, the defending Division II champ, entered Sunday with a perfect 5-0 record after easily dismantling a number of D-I programs. The game very much looked like it would be a tight one, remaining scoreless until the top of the fourth inning.
That’s when Turners (4-0) exploded. Freshman Murphy drove in a run to make it 1-0, setting the stage for Arzuaga. With the bases loaded, the senior catcher lifted a pitch from Hampshire starter and loser Alana Mohan over the fence for a grand slam, staking the visitors to a 5-0 lead.
With Emery shutting the Red Raiders offense down in the pitching circle, Turners’ bats added to the lead in the fifth. Murphy drove in her second run of the day, while Jordyn Fiske also recorded an RBI to make it a 7-0 game.
Hampshire cut the deficit to 7-2 in the sixth, but the Powertown tacked on three more runs in the top of the seventh, putting things out of reach, thanks to more offensive fireworks from Murphy and Arzuaga. The pair combined for seven hits and nine RBI in the No. 2 and 3 spots in the lineup. Leadoff hitter Taylor Murphy was no slouch, either, adding two doubles and scoring three runs. All told, the team’s first three hitters in the batting order were 9-for-10 at the dish.
“For Gabby, she got her first hit of the year, and she’s a good hitter,” Mullins said. “She walked, had a nice hit to break the curse, then hit an absolute BB for that grand slam. Between her and Allyson, those kids had nine of our RBI.”
Emery pitched an outstanding game against a Hampshire team that scored 66 runs in its first five games. The Raiders had scored at least nine runs in each of those contests. But the junior struck out 16, allowing just four hits and a pair of unearned runs to go with just a single walk.
“They’ve been whacking the ball all over and scoring runs, so I was very concerned going in,” Mullins said. “They beat some pretty good teams along the way, but (Emery) was terrific. She hit her spots and really did a nice job.”
Turners returns to Franklin County League action on Tuesday, when the Powertown travels to play Mahar Regional School in Orange at 3:30.