The quest for four straight western Mass. Division III titles takes place this morning at Sortino Field on the campus of UMass.
Turners Falls High School, the three-time defending champions and winners of 12 of the last 13 WMass titles, will look to stop the only team to knock them off during that 13-year stretch of greatness. Second-seeded Mt. Everett Regional School (21-2) won the 2013 Div. III crown, defeating the Powertown in the championship game, 3-0. The two teams will lock horns at 11 a.m. today, the first of a tripleheader of WMass title games that also features the Div. I title tilt (Minnechaug vs. Pittsfield, 1:30) and the Div. II contest (Hampshire vs. Southwick, 4).
While the Eagles enter fresh off an 8-1 win over No. 14 Pioneer Valley Regional School in Thursday’s semifinal round, Everett coach Kurt DeGrenier was not all that pleased with his team’s performance. Starting pitcher Chandler DeGrenier walked three batters and wasn’t particularly sharp early, issues that won’t fly if Everett is going to repeat the history it made four years ago.
Turners, on the other hand, passed its semifinal test with flying colors. The stakes were quite high, as the top-seeded team in the field met No. 4 Greenfield High School in what was essentially a rubber-match after the two sides split the regular-season series. What was billed as a potentially-historic showdown wound up as just another dominant Turners win, as it led from the first inning on en route to an 8-0 thumping of the Green Wave.
Will there be any hangover from the semifinal win against the program’s chief rival?
“That’s the first thing I talked to the kids about (Friday at practice),” Turners coach Gary Mullins admitted. “We talked about how the Greenfield thing. It’s gone. It’s a thing of the past now. We have to move on. Right now, your job isn’t done. So hopefully they’re still hungry and come with the passion to play and try and win a championship.
“But (the Greenfield hangover) is very much a concern,” he continued. “The game was built up and built up. Let’s move on now. I thought we played some really nice softball (against Greenfield). We were disciplined at the plate and I was very happy with our effort. We did what we had to do.”
The Mount Everett offense did score eight runs against Pioneer in the semifinals, and the Eagles have scored double-digit runs in 10 different games this season. But the squad only managed four hits in the semifinal, scoring the bulk of its runs on miscues from the Panthers.
“The history of Mount Everett has been quality pitching and try and force you into mistakes,” Mullins offered. “They typically don’t lay back and try and hit home runs. They’re trying to make things happen and force mistakes.”
DeGrenier has been dominant against the Berkshires this spring. The senior right-hander, who prominently features a change-up in her arsenal, has tossed 13 shutouts this spring. She had a streak of three straight shutouts going until Pioneer managed to push one run across on Thursday.
“DeGrenier throws lots of change-ups and moves the ball pretty well,” Mullins said. “She’s a senior and she’s been there before. I just want my kids to swing at strikes. It’s that simple. (Thursday), it paid off for us. That’s important. We only chased three or four pitches all game long. We didn’t help (Greenfield pitcher Olivia Joy) get us out. We made her throw strikes and that’s a lot more difficult.”
Mullins and Turners have enjoyed a tremendous run of success at UMass. The Powertown has basically set up temporary residency in the month of June at Sortino Field, as Mullins has compiled a ridiculous 30-3 record there. The lone losses came to Everett in the 2013 WMass final, Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School in the 2009 state semifinals and Greenfield in the 2003 WMass semifinals.
A win today would also give Mullins his 100th career postseason victory. The first ‘W’ came in the 1998 WMass quarterfinals.