WESTFIELD — The bottom of the seventh made up for the lack of other high-pressure moments in Wednesday’s Western Massachusetts Class D Final between No. 2 Pioneer Valley Regional and No. 1 Granby.
After finally breaking a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning with three runs, the Panthers clung to a 4-1 lead entering the final frame of play at Westfield State University. Freshman Ethan Quinn returned to the mound for his third inning of relief to close out Pioneer’s first championship in more than a decade, but the top-seeded Rams refused to go down without a fight.
To start the inning, Quinn surrendered a base hit before hitting the following two batters with pitches to load the bases with no outs. He struck out the next batter on a full count, but a defensive error drove in a run to cut the lead to two. After the error, the freshman dug deep and struck out the next batter before forcing a pop fly to close the door as the Panthers piled on each other on the middle of the diamond.
“Obviously it was kind of sweaty,” said head coach Kevin Luippold shortly before being showered in water by his players. The Panthers’ pitching duo of Hugh Cyhowski and Quinn scattered four hits and worked around five errors to secure the win.
“That’s baseball, baseball’s a game of mistakes … it didn’t happen today but our pitchers know that our fielders are excellent,” Luippold said.
“I was kind of just dealing,” Quinn said in the dugout. “Some slipped pitches, it happens, especially since I’m young. I was just up there throwing.”
Quinn, the younger brother of senior Jason Quinn, said winning the title was greatly important to him because this was the last chance for the seniors on the team to win. Jason, although not credited with an RBI, drove in the first run of the game in the first inning when he grounded into a double play with a runner on third.
“It means a lot,” he said. “My brother’s one of the seniors, he’s not going to have this opportunity again, so I was really happy to help him do it.”
In his first year, Luippold, 25, has led the team to their first title in a decade. He said he had great confidence in the team before the season and even though they him some “obstacles” along the way that worried him, he and his players never wavered in the face of adversity.
“I told the guys first week when I came here that if we’re not in the Western Mass. championship then I did something wrong,” he said, “because we have a great group here and it wouldn’t be possible without them … I’m very lucky to come into this program.”
The Panthers scored early and the Rams evened the score in the third inning on a dropped fly ball and the score remained there until the sixth inning.
In the penultimate frame, the meat of Pioneer’s batting order strung three base hits together – off the bats of Jared Hubbard, Jason Quinn and Ethan Quinn – before Cyhowski drove in a run on a fielder’s choice to third. Brayden Thayer followed with an RBI line drive to left field that barely evaded the diving glove of the Rams’ outfielder before Ian Simpson drove home the Panthers’ fourth run with a double to left field.
Speaking after the game, Cyhowski said he was caught up in the moment celebrating and he was so proud of his team for taking home the hardware.
“This is, this is crazy, it’s surreal,” the sophomore said. “We set the goal at the beginning of the year that we wanted to win this. We knew we could and we did it, it’s just crazy.”
Cyhowski pitched four innings and struck out three Rams in his start.
With the title in hand, the Panthers are now preparing for the state tournament, where they have earned a preliminary round bye as the 12 seed. Pioneer will host the victor of No. 21 Mt. Everett and No. 44 St. Mary’s on a date to be determined.
Quinn kept it short when asked how they are preparing for their state tournament run: “Just keep doing what we’re doing.”
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.