WESTFIELD — It was a heck of a run for the Pioneer baseball team.
Hopedale was a No. 1 seed for a reason, and showed why on Tuesday in the MIAA Div. 5 semifinals by having a big day at the plate to end the magical Panthers’ postseason run.
The Blue Raiders finished the game with 17 hits, lighting up the scoreboard for 17 runs to run away with a 17-2 victory at Westfield State University.
Hopedale now awaits the winner of No. 2 Georgetown and No. 3 Mt. Greylock, who square off in the other semifinal on Wednesday.
“I couldn’t be more proud of what they accomplished this year,” Pioneer coach Kevin Luippold said. “I told them they have nothing to hang their heads about this season. We won a league title, we won a Western Mass. title and made it to the Final Four in a pool of 40-something teams. We put up double-digit runs in our first three games, we beat teams from Central [Mass.] who should have smoked us.
“Our pitchers did a great job, our hitters did a great job all season,” Luippold continued. “It was a successful season. Not what anyone would have wanted but baseball is a game of failure and it will only help them. They played their butts off all year.”
The runs came early and often for the Blue Raiders. Hopedale put five runs on the board in the first, tacked two in the second, went off for five runs in the third, added two to the scoreboard in the fourth, scored two in the fifth and added a run in the sixth on a day
The Blue Raiders batted through their lineup five times in six innings. Fourteen of Hopedale’s 17 hits were singles, as the club continued to put the ball in play and get on base.
“They’re a great hitting team,” Luippold said. “One-through-nine, it’s like what we’ve done all year. We hit up and down the order and that’s what they did today. They’re coached very well and they have a lot of great hitters on their team. It was hit after hit after hit. Seventeen hits speaks for itself. They’re a good team and they did what they had to do to win.”
Sean Allen got on with a single for Pioneer in the top of the first, but Jared Hubbard grounded out into a double play to close out the frame.
The Blue Raiders loaded the bases in the bottom of the first following a pair of walks and a single, and Tyler Wilke came up with a two-RBI single to put Hopedale on the board.
Ryan Reynolds then knocked an RBI single and Lucas Levasseur hit a two-RBI double to give the Panthers a 5-0 lead.
Ethan Quinn hit a double in the second but that was all the damage Pioneer could do in the second. Ollie Radcliffe hit an RBI double and Wilke knocked an RBI single to put the Blue Raiders up 7-0 after two.
The Panthers got back in the game in the third. Ian Simpson reached on a walk, Braeden Tsipenyuk knocked a single and both took a base on a passed ball. Jared Hubbard blistered a single to drive in both runs, cutting the lead to 7-2.
Jason Quinn replaced Hugh Cyhowski on the hill for Pioneer in the third but it didn’t slow down the Hopedale bats. Will Parker drove in a run with a single, Radcliffe brought in a run on an error, Jacob Smith hit a two-RBI single and Reynolds drove in a run with a single to make it a 12-2 game going into the fourth.
Parker annihilated a double to bring in a run in the fourth and Smith knocked in an RBI single to make it 14-2 after four. Brayden Lewis and Parker had the two RBIs in the fifth after Hubbard replaced Quinn on the mound. Levasseur walked with bases loaded to score a run in the sixth for the Blue Raiders.
While Hopedale was hitting the ball, Reynolds was able to contain a Pioneer lineup that had been smashing the ball throughout the postseason.
After the third inning, Reynolds allowed a hit to Cyhowski in the fourth and a single for Tsipenyuk in the fifth, but that was all he let up the rest of the way. The lefty kept the Panthers from having the one big inning that has been their calling card throughout the tournament.
Luc Belhumer had a hit off Smith in the top of the seventh, who came on to replace Reynolds on the hill, but Hopedale turned a double play to close out the game.
“We knew we were going to see a lefty so we threw a lefty in batting practice yesterday,” said Luippold. “[Reynolds] had a fastball and a curveball but his curveball kept us off balance. Ethan Quinn is probably our best curveball hitter but he was way ahead of it in his second at bat. He mixed well against our top guys. At the end of the day the hits just didn’t fall for us. We swung the bat, we only had a couple strikeouts. The guys at the plate did all I could ask for, the ball just didn’t find the barrel like it usually does.”