TURNERS FALLS — The Franklin Tech softball team dropped its opening game of the season to Frontier, but the Eagles haven’t looked back since.
Tech followed it up with run-rule wins over McCann Tech, Hoosac and Mahar then fought to earn tightly-contested victories over Lee and Hopkins Academy before knocking off Pioneer, Mohawk Trail and Athol in Franklin County League East action.
Franklin Tech entered Wednesday’s contest against Smith Academy with a chance to ensure it would finish with a .500 or above record and lock up a spot in the MIAA Div. 5 state tournament. The club easily accomplished that, with Hannah Gilbert and Kendra Campbell both knocking home runs while Gilbert tossed a no-hitter to lift the Eagles to a 13-1 win in five innings.
Wednesday’s result made it 10 victories in a row for Franklin Tech (10-1).
“We started the season against a good team and weren’t quite prepared at that point in time,” Franklin Tech coach Joe Gamache said. “The girls have been putting in work. Our goal is to get one percent better each day and we’re still doing that. We got another great pitching performance, we hit the ball well and made plays when we needed to make plays. One of our preseason goals was to make the state tournament and we have that under our belt.”
Gilbert recorded 13 strikeouts in five innings on Wednesday, allowing just three base runners on walks. At the plate Gilbert got things going with a two-run bomb to center field to give the Eagles a 2-0 advantage.
Campbell stepped up and smashed a solo home run in the second before Tech put three runs up in the third inning and seven in the fourth to close out the FCL East win.
Like it has been all season, it was a group effort at the plate that got the job done for the Eagles. Lilly Ross had a hit that brought in two runs, Campbell added a double that drove in another two runs, Cordelia Guerin, Gianna DiSciullo and Skylei Lapan each had a hit and an RBI while Shelby O’Leary and Kristine Given both hit safely in the winning effort.
“It’s a good group of girls,” Gamache said. “They’re the epitome of a team. There’s not a lot of egos here. They all know their roles. When it’s their time to sit, they sit. When it’s there time to play, they play. They’re a fun group.”
On the 10-game win streak, the Eagles have been getting the job done at both the plate and on defense, winning games with their bats as well as with pitching and fielding. If they want to make deep runs at both the Western Mass. and Div. 5 state tournaments as they did last year, they know they’ll have to be balanced and continue to play the softball they know they’re capable of playing.
“We had a rough first game but we came back and we haven’t looked back since,” Campbell said. “It’s going well. If we keep playing the way we are, we’ll be ready for the postseason. If we continue to play how we’re playing, which is good defense, hitting the ball and making smart plays, we should be ready to compete.”
Franklin Tech has a pair of big games on the schedule next week. On Monday it’ll head just around the corner to take on crosstown rival Turners Falls while on Wednesday, it’ll rematch against Hopkins, a team the Eagles defeated just 11-9 to hold onto first place in the FCL East.
Those two contests will be good opportunities to get adjusted to the type of pitching Tech will see come tournament time.
“We’re getting pretty confident,” Gilbert said. “A lot of us are learning when to load up on faster pitchers since we don’t see them so often.”
Gamache said he hopes his team continues to do all the tiny things that go into winning baseball games and not look too far ahead.
“We just have to continue to pay attention to all the little details,” Gamache said. “We need to keep getting positive reps. We have some pretty difficult teams on the schedule moving forward. Our goal is one day at a time. We’re aiming for the end of the year more than we’re aiming for right now.”
Greenfield 6, Easthampton 0 — Michael Pierce went the distance on the mound for the Green Wave, striking out four, not allowing a walk and scattering six hits as Greenfield shut out the Eagles in a Suburban League West win at Nonotuck Park in Easthampton on Wednesday.
Pierce helped himself by blasting a home run for the Green Wave (8-4), which didn’t commit an error behind him.
Deven Dubie smashed two doubles and scored three runs in the win. Jackson Campbell had a hit and two RBIs and John Marchefka cracked two hits and brought in three runs while Malik Moore and Luca Siano each tallied a hit for the Green Wave.
Christopher Reardon doubled, Jake Kostek knocked two hits while Zakery Thibodeau, Christopher Walaszek and Ethan Mullaly each had a hit for Easthampton.
Frontier 15, Amherst 5 — Brady Burch had seven points, Ngawang Deter dished four assists while Quinn Woods and Will Petrin each had two points in the Redhawks’ win over the Hurricanes on Wednesday.