TURNERS FALLS — Throw out the seeds, the Frontier softball team is crashing the state tournament party.
The 21st-seeded Redhawks continued their magical run through the MIAA Division 5 bracket on Friday, putting together one of their most complete performances to date on the biggest stage. Behind the pitching of Ashley Taylor and an unrelenting offensive attack, Frontier secured a 7-1 victory over No. 4 Franklin Tech in an all-Franklin County quarterfinal contest at Nancy Gifford Field.
Frontier (8-15) will play top-seeded Greenfield in the Div. 5 semifinal round, at a date and location to be announced.
“I’m really excited. I’m very happy and confident in my team going into the Final Four,” explained Taylor, who allowed just five hits and one run with no strikeouts and no walks in a complete game outing in the circle.
It was the third consecutive road victory in the state tournament for the Hawks, which have won five of their last six games after starting the season just 3-14.
“Everything finally came together and we started hitting the ball,” Taylor explained. “I think everybody has confidence and I have faith in everyone behind me so I feel like it’s all just coming together right now, which is perfect timing.”
Indeed, Frontier’s ascension into a state semifinal berth has turned heads throughout the Commonwealth. The club has now won three state tournament games in three different counties, beating Tahanto (Worcester County), Mount Greylock (Berkshire) and Franklin Tech (Franklin).
“I wish I had a good answer or a recipe because we would’ve followed it a lot earlier in the season,” Frontier coach Gary Deane said with a smile. “There were a lot of plays we made today that we didn’t make earlier in the season. We had a thousand leaks in our games early in the season and we were getting beat bad. But we were getting beat bad by the best teams in the state, they’re all up here in Franklin County. So we learned, slowly, that you can’t do this, you can’t do this, you have to adjust.”
Frontier jumped on the host Eagles (22-4) in the top of the first inning of Friday’s quarterfinal contest. Makayla Santos led off the game with a single and scored when Taylor belted a triple. She came around one batter later on a sacrifice fly to center field from Delaney Fifield, giving the Hawks a 2-0 lead before some fans had even settled in to their seats.
“We played two tight games against [Frontier] earlier in the season so obviously we knew they could hit the ball,” said Franklin Tech coach Joe Gamache, whose team notched victories via 5-3 and 4-0 scores prior to Friday’s third meeting. “We were able to keep them off-balance the other games but the last few games, they’ve really put it together and played some great softball as a team.”
The Eagles responded in the home half of the first inning for what turned out to be their lone run of the afternoon. Kaitlin Trudeau singled, took second on an error and moved to third on a wild pitch before Hannah Gilbert drove her in with a sacrifice fly to center that cut the deficit to 2-1.
Frontier got that run back in the third when Fifield reached on an infield single and scored on a Sophia Pinardi base hit to make it 3-1.
Taylor worked out of jams in the fifth and sixth innings, stranding Tech runners in scoring position in both. In the bottom of the sixth, the Eagles had runners on second and third after Kendra Campbell reached on a fielder’s choice and Cordelia Guerin got on via a two-base error with two outs. But Taylor induced a ground ball back to her in the circle, keeping the visitors on top heading into the seventh.
That’s where Frontier put things out of reach. Taylor and Fifield delivered singles to open the top of the seventh, and the pair moved to second and third on a throw. Skyler Steele followed with a grounder to third base, and the throw home to try and get Taylor at the plate got away, enabling her and Fifield to both touch home for a 5-1 advantage. Steele took third on the play, and scored on a wild pitch, while Olivia Machon later walked and scored on another wild pitch to extend the advantage to 7-1.
That was plenty for Taylor in the circle, who worked through an error behind her in the seventh to cap the quarterfinal victory with a pop out in foul territory.
“Everybody has my back,” Taylor said. “I never have a doubt when the ball is hit because I know a play is going to be made. And if it’s not, we’re going to make it up next pitch.”
Kylee Gamache had two hits to pace the Franklin Tech offense.
Senior Lauren Ross struck out eight in 6⅓ innings in the circle for the Eagles, walking one. She recorded the 300th strikeout of her career in the sixth inning. Ross is one of just two seniors on the Franklin Tech roster, along with Cassidy Trudeau.
“I couldn’t be prouder of our group of kids,” Gamache said. “We found a way to win 22 games this year. Some teams didn’t even play 22 games. We’ve got a very young roster so the hope is that they learn from this experience and grow for the future.”
As for the Redhawks, Deane said his team isn’t looking to stop their wild postseason journey any time soon.
“We’ve got our lineup kind of set, our defense is set, so whatever the magic is, we’re in the groove and just going to continue on,” he said. “Just the confidence, these kids are too young to worry about it too much. They weren’t nervous until probably the last inning today. The bus is just a party … they’re loose as can be.”