AMHERST – Too much firepower. Too many weapons.
Make that five consecutive sectional titles.
Freshman pitcher Jade Tyler allowed three hits in five innings of work, and the Turners Falls High School offense pounded out 10 hits to send the top-seeded Thunder to an 8-3 victory over No. 2 Mount Everett Regional High School in the WMass Div. III championship game Saturday at Sortino Field on the campus of UMass.
The title was the fifth in a row for Turners (20-3), as its last defeat came in the 2013 final to Mount Everett. The Thunder will play in Tuesday’s MIAA Div. III semifinal at Worcester State University against Central Mass. champion Hopedale High School (14-9).
“We expected to come in here and win this thing and we did that,” said Turners coach Gary Mullins afterward. “I’m disappointed again in the way we played, though. We got a couple of big hits when we needed them. But if we want to do anything (in the state tournament), we’ve got to be a whole heck of a lot sharper.”
Mount Everett (15-7) came out with nothing to lose. After falling to Turners, 15-1, in last year’s championship game, the Eagles played with house money in the top of the first inning. Devan Galli drew a lead-off walk, and Gwen Carpenter followed with a single that advanced Galli to third after she had stolen second base.
First baseman Marion DeVoti drove in the game’s opening run, when her bunt to the infield was thrown back home with Galli breaking for the plate. The ball was mishandled and Galli was ruled safe, giving upstart Everett a quick 1-0 advantage.
The lead was short-lived, however. Aly Murphy singled with one out in the bottom of the first, and she eventually came around on an RBI single from Tyler that tied the game.
The offensive output was a sign of things to come for the Thunder. In the second inning, second baseman Taryn Thayer singled with one out, and Taylor Murphy reached on an error. Aly Murphy walked to load the bases, and No. 3 hitter Olivia Whittier put the top seeds on top for the first time all day with a two-run single for a 3-1 lead.
Hailey Bogusz made it 4-1 one batter later, when she notched an RBI groundout to second base.
Whittier, who was named the Gary Stacy Most Valuable Player as voted by the media after a 2-for-3 performance, said despite being a freshman, she tried to rise to the occasion in the championship game.
“It’s nerve-wracking a bit but I know that if I do what I’ve been taught, I’m going to be able to make some plays,” Whittier offered.
With Tyler settling in for Turners in the circle, the defending champs continued to swing a hot bat in the fourth. Whittier reached with her second hit of the final, and Bogusz joined her on the bases after another Mount Everett error. With two outs, Peyton Emery dropped a two-run single up the middle into shallow center field, giving Turners even more breathing room up 6-1.
“We spend a ton of time working on our hitting,” began Mullins. “I thought we hit the ball harder (in the semifinals) but we still got 10 hits. That’s a good thing.”
The hits kept coming in the fifth. Thayer doubled, her third hit and second two-bagger of the championship game, and Aly Murphy singled her home. Courtesy runner Cassidhe Wozniak made it 8-1 when she sprinted home to beat the throw on a wild pitch.
Mount Everett pushed single runs across in the sixth and seventh innings against Emery, who came on for the final two frames. Tyler and Emery combined for four strikeouts and five walks in seven innings.
“I’m very proud of the way the girls played,” Mount Everett coach Kurt DeGrenier said. “If you ask me, (Turners) is the toughest team in Division I, II and III, and we just keep running into them every single year.”
The youngsters on the Turners roster showed the future is now in the Powertown. The freshman class of Whittier, Tyler, Thayer and Taylor Murphy all had big outings in guiding their team to a 14th sectional title in 15 years.
“It’s a big group of us who have been playing together for awhile,” said Whittier of the frosh. “We all got pulled up at the same time and I think we’ve done pretty well for our freshman year.”
No argument from Mullins.
“Our freshman class is very talented,” he lauded. “And they’ll be around for awhile.”
Turners finished the sectional tournament scoring 36 runs in just three games. The offense struck out just twice all postseason.
Still, the Thunder know there’s plenty of room for improvement if a state tournament run is in the cards.
“This game, I think, shows we’re capable of more,” Whittier explained. “We didn’t do bad, really, but I still think we can play so much better and harder next time out.”