Although the Greenfield High School boys’ tennis team won two of the three matches contested Monday afternoon, a shorthanded Green Wave bunch ultimately dropped its season-opener after being forced to forfeit a pair of matches.
Visiting St. Mary’s Parish School benefited from forfeit wins at third singles and second doubles, and the Saints held on for a 3-2 Tri-County League victory at the Davis Street Courts in Greenfield.
Playing without its top two singles players, Greenfield (0-1, 0-1) moved senior Luca D’Angelo up to the No. 1 spot Monday and he produced. D’Angelo won a tight match against St. Mary’s Jared Rusin, 7-5, 2-6, 10-5, in a 10-point, third-set tiebreaker.
Junior Connor Pedigree was pressed into action at No. 2 singles for the Wave, and he, too, produced with a victory. Pedigree fought off a match point in the third set tiebreaker to upend St. Mary’s Dom Namakeo, 6-4, 3-6, 11-9.
“Both Luca and Connor were playing up,” explained Greenfield head coach Andrew Varnon. “We had some good signs there. Although we lost to the team, we had some good individual performances and it gave us something to build on.”
The Greenfield duo of Anjoy Kang-Stryker and Jacob Frank dropped the lone doubles match contested at No. 1. St. Mary’s Joe Wilcox and Kevin Lu picked up a 6-2, 6-2 victory, the only win necessary for the visiting Saints to clinch the team win.
Greenfield, which had its first three matches of the season postponed due to poor weather last week, returns to action Wednesday with a home match against rival Turners Falls High School.
PV Christian 4, Turners Falls 1 — Pioneer Valley Christian Academy won several close matches to open a new tennis facility with a 4-1 victory over Turners Falls High School Monday afternoon in a Tri-County League match in Springfield.
Turners Falls picked up its lone victory of the day at second doubles, where Mike Boyle and Joseph Kochan defeated Leo Chen and Nathaniel Brosseau, 6-0, 6-2.
Jimmy Vaughn had a tough match at first singles, where he wound up falling to Ethan Ondrock 6-2, 5-7, 10-6 (third-set tiebreaker), while Will Turn also played well at third singles but fell to Emil Tumasyan, 8-6, 6-2. Brian Poirier fell to Andrew Taft at second singles, 6-1, 6-1.
Brody Trott and Josh Gaulin also had a tight match at first doubles where they lost in a pair of tiebreakers to Andrew Rossoshansky and Kevin Sharpe, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-1).
Turners 3, St. Mary’s 2 — Rachel Tucker and Isabelle Farrick held on for a three-set win at first doubles, and visiting Turners Falls High School edged St. Mary’s Parish School, 3-2, in an independent girls’ tennis match Monday in Westfield.
The duo captured the first set, 6-1, before St. Mary’s Moira O’Neill and Gina Mulvenna rallied for a 6-1 win to even the score. Tucker and Farrick settled down however, securing the win thanks to a 6-4 third-set victory.
Turners (1-1) picked up a pair of singles victories en route to the team win. Amber Taylor defeated St. Mary’s Alexis Shedd, 6-2, 6-2, at No. 2, while Haleigh Greene was a 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) winner at No. 3 over Erin Olearcek.
The Powertown travels to Lee High School for an independent match Friday.
Athol 9, FC Tech 4 — Athol High School overcame a shaky start to score eight runs in the final four innings and post a 9-4 win over Franklin County Technical School in an independent baseball game Monday afternoon in Athol.
Mark Ferrari came on to pitch in relief after the Eagles (0-2) took a 4-1 lead after two innings of play. Ferrari worked 4⅓ scoreless innings of relief allowing one hit and two walks with 10 strikeouts.
“Mark came in and really changed the game for us and allowed our offense to get to work,” Athol coach Josh Talbot said.
Talbot also pointed out that Nick Bousquet, who struggled in Athol’s season-opening loss to Turners Falls last week, came on and struck out one and retired both hitters he faced to close out the game.
“We wanted to get his confidence going and he looked sharp.”
The Athol (1-1) offense also clobbered the ball in the win, and Talbot pointed out that it would have resulted in some round-trippers if the team’s fence was erected.
“We hit some absolute bombs,” Talbot said. “If our fence was up we probably would have hit three home runs, and we don’t put our fence at Mahar’s distance, we put it at an appropriate distance.”
Franklin Tech jumped out to the 4-1 lead after two innings thanks in part to Sam Bobala, who hit an RBI single in the first inning, and a two-run double in the second. Franklin Tech scored three times in the second inning as Athol starter Noah Pottinger walked four batters in the frame. He managed to strand two runners in scoring position to end the inning, and the Athol offense got going in the third.
The Red Raiders closed the gap to one run in the third inning with a pair of runs. The first three Athol hitters all reached base and Keegan Lutz walked with the bases loaded to force in Kris Selanis. Maysin Tarbell then grounded out to plate another run, before Franklin Tech starter Spencer Telega got out of the jam. Max Leh came on in relief to start the fourth inning but the Athol bats continued to rake, as Joey Lehtomaki walked with one out and scored when Selanis followed with a loud triple to right-center. Selanis later scored to put Athol in front, 5-4. The Red Raiders tacked on three runs in the fifth, and one more in the sixth to pull away.
Robbie Nelson finished with two hits and one RBI in the win, and Ferrari added one hit and two RBIs.
Telega finished with two strikeouts and four walks in the no decision, while Leh struck out two and walked two in three innings of relief and earned the loss.
Pioneer 13, Mohawk 1 (6) — Steph Scoville struck out 12 and allowed two hits and one walk in six innings as Pioneer Valley Regional School defeated Mohawk Trail Regional High School, 13-1, in a mercy-rule shortened Franklin County League softball game Monday afternoon in Northfield.
Pioneer scored in every inning except the first en route to the 12-run victory. Kaylee Gibson paced the offense with a triple and a three-run home run, and Jill Gadreault had two hits and an RBI. Olivia Rowe notched a pair of hits, while Shelby Avery, Scoville, Jasmine Terounzo and Aneeka Johnson each had one hit.
Mia Lesieur struck out two and walked six in the loss. She and Caitlin Johnston each had one hit for Mohawk.
• Pioneer made it a clean sweep after the JV team picked up a 25-4 win over Mohawk on Monday.
Pioneer’s Tayla Sadlowski and Caitlin Hale had two hits each, while Chloe Cutting had a hit and struck out nine in the pitching circle.
Mohawk was led by Sydney Taylor’s two hits at the dish.
Mahar 8, Putnam 7 — Eighth-grader Juliana Herbert smacked a two-run double in the top of the seventh inning, as visiting Mahar Regional School did just enough to slip past Putnam Vocational Technical Academy, 8-7, in an independent softball game Monday afternoon in Springfield.
The Senators (1-1) scored six runs in the top of the seventh to turn a 2-2 game into an 8-2 lead. Putnam responded in the home half of the frame, pushing five runs across with two outs before Mahar pitcher Megan Rich buckled down and sealed the club’s first victory. Rich struck out 10 and walked just one to earn the win in the circle.
At the plate, Rich had two hits and drove in four runs for the Senators. Sarah Graeff and Jordyn Berry finished with two hits each, while Berry drove in a run. Shelby Ponusky had a hit and an RBI in the win.
Mahar is back at it today when it travels to Easthampton High School.
Athol 3, Belchertown 2 — Trailing two sets to one, Athol High School pushed back in a big way Monday night. The Red Raiders took care of business in their home opener, shaking off a 2-1 deficit to defeat Belchertown High School, 25-21, 24-26, 20-25, 25-14, 15-10, in a PVIAC East boys’ volleyball match at Mallet Gymnasium.
Athol (3-1, 2-1) was led offensively by Anthony Potenti’s nine kills, while Hayden Herk added eight kills and Jordan Carrasquillo tossed in six. Colby Soltysik recorded 30 assists from the setter position, and he added three aces and three kills. Hudson Carlson registered three aces to go with two blocks.
“We cut the errors down in sets four and five and started playing smarter,” Athol coach Sean MacDonald said.
The Red Raiders host Putnam on Wednesday in another East contest.