SOUTH DEERFIELD — The prospect of one-and-done hovers over every postseason tournament game, and even the highly seeded or solidly favored teams can’t let their guard down for a moment to get to where they want.
Frontier carried a narrow 1-0 lead into the seventh inning Monday afternoon, but given the slightest opening, visiting South Hadley struck for a pair of runs in the top of the seventh to oust the third-seeded Redhawks, 2-1, in a Western Mass. Division 3 baseball first-round game at Valiton Field.
South Hadley’s Tyler Evans, who limited Frontier to only three hits in a complete-game effort on the mound, delivered a two-out, two-run single in the top of the seventh inning to propel the 14th-seeded Tigers (5-7) into a quarterfinal-round game Wednesday at No. 6 seeded Southwick.
Sam Schreiber, who relieved Frontier starter Tyler Baranowski to start the fourth inning, had motored through the middle innings, retiring nine of the 11 batters he faced in the fourth through the sixth. After Matt McDermott lined out softly to shortstop to begin the seventh, John Sherwood singled to left and Brady Mendoza reached on an infield hit, moving pinch-runner Nate Carillon to second. Schreiber then struck out Joe Meon, but walked Aidan Sullivan to fill the bases. Evans then stepped up and shot a single through the right side, scoring Carillon and Mendoza for a 2-1 lead. Sullivan tried to score himself when the throw to the plate got through to the backstop, but Frontier backed up the play and tagged out Sullivan at home to get out of the inning.
Evans promptly set down Frontier in order in the home seventh to wrap the upset.
“I’ve just been telling our kids to stay mentally focused and sharp, because it’s been a long time since they’ve played baseball,” said South Hadley coach Matt Foley. “Today was a good way for them to see the benefit of hanging in there. They were very involved today, and Tyler really pitched and kept us in the game.
“We’ve talked about the history here, being a low seed in the tournament, and how playoff baseball is a different mindset. I’m happy for them that they got one under their belt, and now we’ll move on.”
Frontier (10-3) jumped to a 1-0 lead in the home fourth, when leadoff man Kyle Barnes was plunked on the left hip by a pitch and stole second. With one out, Kevin Baumann slapped a single through the middle into center field, allowing Barnes to come around from second. Evans then induced a double-play grounder from Jacob Bryant to prevent any further damage.
From there, the Redhawks got a man to third base in the fifth and a two-out rally in the sixth, when Ben Martino singled and Baumann reached on an error, but Evans worked his way out of both situations.
Baranowski started on the mound for Frontier and got into some trouble in the top of the first, when Evans and Jaycob Santiago had consecutive one-out singles and Grady Provost drew a two-out walk to load the bases. But McDermott grounded out to first, and that started a string of seven straight batters set down by Baranowski to conclude his three innings of work.
“Pitching-wise, we stepped up in big moments and our defense made plays when we needed them to,” said Frontier coach Chris Williams. “Offensively, we weren’t where we needed to be in order to take the game. I feel like we never really found our groove or a rhythm where we were barreling up balls consistently. We didn’t come up with the clutch hits that you need in a tight ballgame. They did everything they could to try to win the game and it just didn’t work out that way.”
The Redhawks lose five seniors but are heavy on underclassmen, as they look to regain the heights and progress of recent seasons where they finished as Western Mass. Division III finalists in 2016 and 2018.
“It’s a really special group. Our captains, Kyle Barnes, Jacob Bryant and Ben Martino, and our other seniors, these guys created a culture that’s going to be the new swing here at Frontier for the next generation coming up,” said Williams. “We’ll be looking to get right back to where we’ve been in the past.”