AMHERST — It didn’t take the Turners Falls softball team long to reacquaint itself with Sortino Field.
The top-seeded Thunder scored nine runs in the bottom of the second inning, providing starting pitcher Jade Tyler more than enough offense as the Powertown slugged its way into a 16th consecutive sectional final, Wednesday afternoon. Turners broke it open early en route to a 10-3 win over No. 4 Mount Greylock in a WMass Division 3 semifinal played on the campus of UMass.
The Thunder (19-3) will meet No. 3 McCann Tech (17-5), a 6-3 winner over No. 2 Mount Everett in the day’s other semifinal, on Saturday at 11 a.m. back at UMass for the Division 3 title.
The early offensive explosion set the tone. Already leading 1-0 after a Tyler RBI ground out in the bottom of the first, Turners sent 12 batters to the plate in the second that dashed any sort of a Greylock upset bid.
Taylor Murphy came through with a big two-run single in the frame, while Tyler followed with a two-run double. Aly Murphy’s RBI single made it 7-0, while Olivia Whittier and Lexi Lacey added RBI singles of their own to keep the rally rolling. By the time Lacey came all the way around to score, it was a 10-0 lead for the defending champions.
“That absolutely helped get us going,” offered Turners coach Gary Mullins of the early offensive barrage. “We hit the ball pretty well for most of the day.”
Staked to a double-digit lead, Tyler rolled through the first four innings. The sophomore hurler retired the first nine batters she faced and 13 of the first 14.
“We’re a little fussy here. I think she could be better,” Mullins said of his pitcher. “She’s given us a chance to win every game this year. But she can definitely get better.”
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the Powertown, however.
Miscues on the defensive end gave the Mounties (11-11) a glimmer of hope in the top of the fifth.
Emma Newberry reached on an error with one out, and scored on an RBI triple from Taylor Cornell — the team’s only hit of the game — to cut the deficit to 10-1.
That set up the game’s weirdest play, as Kamryn Sweet’s grounder to second base wound up all over the diamond. Taylor Murphy’s throw home to try and nail Cornell at the plate was a tad late, but on the play, Sweet turned the bag at first and took off for second. Catcher Aly Murphy gunned a throw down, but no Turners player was in the vicinity of second to receive the toss. The ball scooted into center field, rolling almost all the way to the wall, and Sweet kept on chugging all the way around for a run that pulled Greylock within 10-3.
“That inning in the middle really bothered me,” said Mullins of the fifth. “We had some veteran players making those plays that they didn’t make. So it was very disappointing. We weren’t off with the bats but we were off with the mittens today.”
In between innings, the veteran skipper let his team know he was not pleased with their defensive prowess in the sloppy fifth.
“He was just saying that we need to pick it up and get our bats going again and make up for what happened,” Taylor Murphy recalled of the team’s brief huddle with their coach in the middle of the fifth. “Whenever we make errors, he tries to get us pumped up and fix our mistakes and get our bats going so we can get our runs back.”
In typical Turners fashion, the team cleaned up its defensive issues the rest of the way. Tyler retired the final seven batters following the Mounties’ third run, and she wound up striking out eight in a complete-game effort with no walks.
“We definitely had some very good points. We started off strong,” said Taylor Murphy, who finished 3-for-4 in the win. “The (fifth inning), we had a few bumps. But we worked together as a team to get over it and we have confidence in our pitcher to get out of it. She’s very confident because she’s so good.”
Greylock pitcher Lily Lesieur, a former Mohawk Trail star, kept the Thunder off the board over her final four innings, allowing just a triple to Lacey and a single to Taylor Murphy after the disastrous bottom of the second. She struck out two and walked two in six innings of work for the Mounties.
“It happens sometimes, you jump out like that, score eight or nine runs, and everything just goes (south),” Mullins said. “We lost a little bit of focus. But they made a couple real nice plays. Their shortstop, third baseman made nice plays, took a couple more hits away.”
In addition to Taylor Murphy’s big day, Lacey and Whittier smacked two hits apiece as Turners held a 9-1 edge in the hits department.
Turners now turns its attention to Saturday’s WMass final. The program is in search of a sixth consecutive Division 3 crown.
“It’s a dream of every girl in softball, honestly,” Taylor Murphy said. “Getting it to WMass, playing at a college like this, I’m very grateful for my experiences and very grateful for the coaches I have that help me and my teammates get here.”
Turners 10, Mt. Greylock 3
Mt. Greylock …………………….. 000 030 0 — 3 1 4
Turners Falls …………………… 190 000 x — 10 9 3
Hits: (MG) Cornell. (TF) T. Murphy 3, Tyler, A. Murphy, Whittier 2, Lacey 2.
2B: (TF) Tyler, A. Murphy.
3B: (MG) Cornell. (TF) T. Murphy, Lacey.
RBI: (MG) Cornell, Sweet. (TF) T. Murphy 2, Tyler 3, A. Murphy, Whittier, Lacey.
WP: Tyler (7ip, 8k, 0bb).
LP: Lesieur (6ip, 2k, 2bb).