Things weren’t looking good for the Frontier Regional School baseball team early.
Trailing 3-0 after three innings and facing arguably the best pitcher in western Massachusetts on the road, the Red Hawks seemed a long way from a Hampshire League West championship.
But the players in the Frontier dugout never quit. The visitors cut the deficit to 3-2 in the fourth, and scored four times in the sixth, including a huge two-run, go-ahead triple from Connor Waitkus, to come all the way back and capture a 6-3 victory over Hopkins Academy Wednesday afternoon in Hadley and claim the outright HL West title.
The league championship was the first for Frontier since 2012, when the Hawks reached the WMass Division III final.
“For the past two years, we finished a game behind (first place) and we’ve talked about that all offseason,” explained Frontier coach Chris Williams. “We talked how we have a great team this year, a bunch of talented guys. The first stop is to be Hampshire League champs and we accomplished that goal. Now we’re onto the next one.”
Hopkins ace Jon Morrison cruised through the first three innings, striking out seven of the nine batters he faced in setting Frontier (17-1 overall, 9-1 HL) down in order once through the lineup. Mix in a two-run home run in the second inning from John Earle and the Golden Hawks (11-4, 7-2) were in strong early positioning to capture the league title.
Williams was confident in his bunch, however.
“We had a good practice week, prepared specifically for Morrison,” he said. “We gassed up the pitching machine, got him timed up.”
Frontier cut the deficit to 3-2 in the fourth inning, as Kiernan Freeman kicked off a two-out rally with a single and moved to third on a Waitkus double. That set up Dylan Apanell, who drove a two-run single back up the middle to bring the visitors back within a run.
The score held until the sixth. Matt Hildreth led off with a double and took third on Kalen Evans’ sacrifice bunt. Pinch hitter Alec Jordan drove a ground ball to the right side and Hildreth was able to beat the throw home to tie the game, 3-3.
The Red Hawks were just getting started, however. Freeman singled to put a pair of runners on base, and Waitkus came through with the biggest hit of the day. The sophomore slugger roped a two-run triple that plated both runs, giving Frontier its first lead of the day at 5-3. Waitkus then scampered home on a passed ball to give the visitors the final 6-3 advantage.
“We had Morrison on the ropes at that point,” explained Williams of Waitkus’ at-bat. “I was very confident in Connor going up there. He had a couple good at-bats before that and he timed it up right, smashed one to left-center and gave us the lead.”
Hildreth made sure the lead stood, pitching a scoreless sixth before the Hawks made one last push in the bottom of the seventh. The junior walked the first two batters of the seventh, forcing Williams to bring in Waitkus. Like he did at the dish, Waitkus delivered, beginning with a strikeout. A walk loaded the bases before Hopkins’ Jack Feltovic hit into a double play to end the game and give Frontier the victory.
“I’m so proud of the guys,” beamed Williams. “Down 3-0 to the best pitcher in WMass, right after a kid just hit a two-run home run. … But not for one second did those guys consider the possibility of losing. They were up the whole game supporting their teammates.”
Hildreth, making his first start of the season in a huge spot, struck out three and walked four in six innings, allowing just five hits. Williams decided to pitch ace Ben Arnold earlier in the week against South Hadley High School, giving Frontier a win that set up Wednesday’s winner-take-all showdown for the league title.
“He’s the quarterback of the football team so we told him to use that ice in his veins, throw strikes and trust the defense behind you,” Williams said of Hildreth. “He pitched great for us. And Connor came in and did what he does. He has that type of attitude where he’s going to go out there and perform regardless of the situation.”
Morrison, headed for the University of Rhode Island next year, finished with nine strikeouts in a complete-game loss. Just two of those came after the dominant three-inning stretch to open the contest however.
League title assured, the Red Hawks have two independent games left on the slate. They host Amherst Regional High School today before heading to Hampshire Regional High School next week.
Greenfield 9, Turners 2 — Greenfield High School finally punched its postseason ticket Wednesday.
Behind a 12-hit, nine-run offensive barrage, the Green Wave earned its 10th win of the season with a 9-2 HL West victory over Turners Falls High School at Veterans Memorial Field in Greenfield.
The Green Wave (10-7, 4-5) scored twice in each of the first four innings and added one final run in the sixth against the Thunder (4-13, 1-8), who entered the game on a modest two-game winning streak but were short on pitchers playing their third game in as many days.
“We’ve been waiting around to do this,” Greenfield coach Tom Suchanek said of qualifying. “We probably should have done it before tonight. We came out right away and scored and we haven’t done that in other games recently.”
The offense was plenty for Green Wave starter and winner Owen Phelps, who went the distance, striking out six and walking one.
“Owen pitched well and we played pretty solid defense behind him,” Suchanek said. “Hopefully, this can carry on and we can win some games to help with our tournament seed.”
Colin Cloutier singled, tripled and drove in two runs, while Hunter Campbell had three hits and drove in a run. Nate Haselton had two hits and three RBIs, and Jake Suhl doubled, tripled and drove in a run. Joel Peabody chipped in a single and a double.
Dominic Carme singled and doubled for Turners, and Ryan Campbell doubled. Jon Fritz hit an RBI single.
Turners used four pitchers in the loss. Jake Dodge pitched two innings in the loss.
Mohawk 5, Easthampton 4 (8) — Mohawk Trail Regional High School stayed alive in the postseason hunt.
A two-out RBI single by Brian Allen in the bottom of the eighth inning lifted the Warriors over first-place Easthampton High School, 5-4, in a Hampshire League East Division baseball game Wednesday in Buckland.
The Warriors (8-10, 4-5) won their second straight game since their backs went up against the wall and got into position where it needed to all but win its final four games of the season. The victory, coupled with some other outcomes in the league today, also leaves Mohawk open to the possibility of tying for second place in the HL East. Mohawk has Athol on Tuesday and Drury High School on Wednesday.
Easthampton (10-5, 7-2) led 4-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning when Mohawk struck for a pair of runs to tie it. Iain Sanislo singled and Jon Schuetze walked with one out to put two men aboard and Luke Viens followed with a bunt single to score Sanislo. After the second out, Schuetze came around to tie the game on a passed ball. In the eighth, Schuetze bunted for a basehit and moved to second on a passed ball. With two outs, Allen took an 0-1 offering from Easthampton reliever Lance Parrish and lined a shot to right-center that got up in the sun and fell in for a base hit, allowing Schuetze to score the game-winning run.
Wyatt Bandy-Page earned the win in relief with one strikeout and one walk in 3⅔ innings. Viens struck out two and walked six in 4⅓ innings as the Mohawk starter.
Schuetze and Viens each finished with three hits, while Bandy-Page and Sanislo each had two hits.
Parrish suffered the loss, striking out one and walking one in two innings.
Mahar 6, Smith Academy 5 (8) — Mahar Regional School may be eliminated from postseason play, but the Senators are only a few runs away from being right in the thick of things in the HL East.
After struggling to win close games, the Senators finally had reason to celebrate Wednesday.
Logan Dodge’s two-out RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning lifted Mahar past Smith Academy, 6-5, in a HL East contest in Orange.
Mahar is now 2-5 in one-run games this season, and five of the past six Mahar games have been one-run games. The only game not decided by one run in that stretch was Tuesday’s 8-6 loss to Easthampton in which the Eagles scored twice in the bottom of the sixth inning to break a 6-6 tie. Mahar has also played extra innings in three of its past four games, dropping each prior to Wednesday.
“I’ve seen it on the guys’ faces, you see that they are frustrated, because they’ve been playing hard all season,” Mahar coach Art Billings said. “These guys could have rolled over today knowing that they are out of the tournament, but they came to play. I give them credit, they played hard all the way through.”
Mahar (6-11, 3-7) actually trailed 5-4 heading to the bottom of the seventh and it looked like the team might come up short in a one-run game once again. But Will Peredina hit a one-out single to left, and he broke for second with Charlie Barnes at the plate and Barnes ripped a single to left to score Peredina all the way from first.
In the bottom of the eighth, Todd Chiasson led off with a walk and Colin Boyle grounded out to move Chiasson to second. Jake Carron then grounded out to second to move Chiasson to third, and Dodge followed by hitting a fly ball over the head of the left fielder to walk off as winners. Dodge also earned the win, striking out one and walking none in 2⅓ innings of hitless relief.
“He hasn’t pitched much this season, but with the short amount of arms I had available today, I just wanted him to throw strikes,” Billings said. “He threw two good innings for us and then came up with the game-winning hit.”
Mahar finished with 12 hits, including four by Barnes, who drove in a run and scored twice. Sam Paul, who started the game on the mound for Mahar, striking out three and walking five in 5⅔ , had a pair of hits with a double and two RBIs. Dodge had two hits and two RBIs, and Peredina had two hits and one RBI.
Liam Pitrat struck out eight and walked two in 7⅔ innings in the loss. Cam Darragh had two hits and two RBIs for Smith (7-9, 3-6), and Colin Ferrara had two hits.
Athol 5, Pioneer 1 — Athol picked up a huge victory on its push to qualify for the postseason by defeating Pioneer Valley Regional School, 5-1, in a HL East game Wednesday evening in Northfield.
The Red Raiders (8-8, 5-3) moved into second place in the HL East and need to win one of their final two league games to qualify for the postseason. Athol faces Mohawk and Easthampton next week. The Red Raiders can also qualify by winning two of their final four games, as it also plays a doubleheader against Salem High School Saturday at Salem State University. Pioneer (9-9, 5-4) fell into third place in the division, but needs to win just one of its final two games to qualify. The Panthers could do that this evening when they host Franklin County Technical School at 6, seeking redemption for a loss to the Eagles earlier in the season.
Mark Ferrari pitched a complete-game two-hitter to earn the win, striking out six and walking four.
Nick Bousquet had two hits and two RBIs for Athol, while Dakota Williams had two hits and one RBI. Keegan Lutz had one hit and one RBI, and Noah Pottinger drove in a run. Robbie Nelson doubled.
Jordan Loughman tripled for Pioneer, and Jacob Quinn singled. Jared Ackerman suffered the loss, striking out one and walking one in five innings.