AMHERST — An early run provided a glimmer of hope. But too many mistakes — mental and physical — proved to be the undoing for Pioneer Valley Regional School on Thursday.
The 14th-seeded Panthers used two upset road victories to reach the Western Mass. Division III semifinals. A third consecutive win against a lower-seeded team was not in the cards, though, as No. 2 Mt. Everett Regional School overcame an early hole to collect an 8-1 win in semifinal action at Sortino Field on the campus of UMass.
The loss ended senior-laden, Cinderella Pioneer’s season at 12-11 overall, while Mt. Everett advanced to Saturday’s WMass Div. III title game against Turners Falls High School (11 a.m.). The top-seeded Powertown captured an 8-0 win over Greenfield High School in Thursday’s other semifinal at UMass.
“We didn’t play as well as we wanted to. There was some getting down on ourselves at times and we were playing down, which we haven’t been used to lately,” Pioneer senior shortstop Jess Scoville offered. “But to be honest, it didn’t really feel like (an 8-1 game). We just had a lot of mental errors that made the difference.”
Pioneer wound up committing three errors, including two in a rough bottom of the second, when Mt. Everett scored three runs. But the Panthers threw the ball around a bit with runners on base, allowing the Eagles (21-2) to take extra bases that ultimately yielded runs.
“I’m really not sure what knocked us down,” Pioneer coach Sue Fuller explained. “We knew (Mt. Everett) was a good team but we felt pretty evenly-matched with them going in. We just made more errors and mistakes than they did.”
The Panthers actually took a lead in this one. After a scoreless first inning, Pioneer’s Brianna Jobst walked to lead off the top of the second and moved up to third base when Olivia Rowe reached on an error. Junior catcher Shelby Avery made it 1-0, as her bunt enabled Jobst to sneak home before Everett first baseman Hannah Race was able to get the ball to the plate.
The damage could’ve been worse, but Everett starter Chandler DeGrenier stranded Rowe at third base and Amelia Marchand (walk) at second base with a pop out to third and a ground out to second base.
“I didn’t expect jitters to be there for us early but that wound up being the case,” admitted Mt. Everett coach Kurt DeGrenier. “Chandler walked some girls and we came out a little flatfooted.”
Everett pounced in the home half of the second, tying the game on a wild pitch with two outs. Ali Brassard followed with a hot shot to third base that went off the glove of a diving Marchand. Scoville was also in pursuit, and the ball deflected away from both of them, allowing two runs to score, staking the Berkshire team to a 3-1 advantage.
Given her first lead of the outing, DeGrenier settled in, using her change-up to stymie the Pioneer lineup. She allowed just four baserunners the rest of the way, as Pioneer’s best scoring threat came in the top of the fourth when Avery singled and Sammie Belhumeur walked. But DeGrenier wiggled out of trouble and wound up retiring the final seven batters she faced.
Everett’s offense piled up runs in support of its right-hander. The second-seeded team in the tourney scored a pair in the third off relief pitcher Kaylee Gibson, who came on after Lizzie Fuller got the start and tossed the first two frames.
The lead remained 5-1 until the bottom of the sixth, when an error and two walks led to three runs for Everett in pulling away for the 8-1 victory. Freshman Stephanie Scoville finished up, getting the final two outs of the game as the Panthers wound up using three pitchers in the semifinal.
“What their specialties are, they all offer something different so I thought we could work off that,” said Fuller of her trio of pitching options, which combined for five strikeouts and six walks.
Pioneer actually wound up with the same amount of hits as Everett, as both squads managed just four on Thursday. Alexus Vergobbe tripled in the top of the first while Lizzie Fuller, Jess Scoville and Avery singled. DeGrenier struck out six and walked three in the complete-game outing for the Eagles.
“With the way they’ve been playing, we by no means took them lightly,” said Coach DeGrenier of Pioneer. “It definitely wasn’t our A-game though. We wanted to go into Saturday with some good vibes but hopefully we got this out of our system.”
The loss marked the final game in the careers of seven Pioneer seniors in Lizzie Fuller, Vergobbe, Jobst, Belhumeur, Marchand, Jess Scoville and Sophie Peduzzi.
“Getting to play here was one of the best feelings for me,” offered Jess Scoville of the semifinal appearance, the first for the program since 2009. “I get to end my career at UMass, which is amazing. I got pulled up for the tourney in eighth grade but we’ve never made it this far. A lot of people doubted us, so to be able to get here made it even more special. I’m proud of everyone on the team.”
The Mt. Everett-Turners final is a rematch of the 2013 WMass title game. The Eagles won that contest, 3-0, and they’re still the last team to beat the Powertown in the postseason.