Surprise, surprise.
After pulling off a quarterfinal round upset of second-seeded Easthampton on Monday, the upstart Frontier Regional School softball team is looking to crash the party at UMass this afternoon. The seventh-seeded Red Hawks (15-7) are playing with house money as they prepare to meet No. 3 Hoosac Valley (17-4) in the WMass Division 2 semifinal round at Sortino Field (3 p.m.).
Frontier’s trip to the sectional semifinals is the program’s first in four years. In 2015, the Hawks knocked off Palmer, 9-3, to earn a spot in the semis. Their ride came to an end against eventual champion Hampshire, 4-1.
Since then, Frontier hadn’t won a postseason game until just last week. The team, which won 13 games during the regular season and finished third in the competitive Franklin County League behind Turners Falls and Greenfield, has ratcheted things up for the tournament run. The two postseason wins so far this spring are the most since 2014, when the program reached the Div. 2 final before falling, again, to Hampshire.
The teams last met in the postseason back in 2011, when Hoosac captured a 10-7 victory in the Division 2 quarterfinals. The Hurricanes wound up falling in the semifinal round to eventual champion Wahconah.
Hoosac is making its second consecutive trip to the Division 2 semifinals. Last year, the ’Canes fell to Wahconah, 14-2, at UMass.
After suffering a three-game losing streak to close out the regular season, Frontier is playing its best softball at the right time. The Hawks thumped 10th-seeded Belchertown, 16-1, in the opening round, and put it all together to beat Easthampton, 4-3, in the quarters. The win over the Eagles avenged a 9-1 loss suffered just 11 days earlier in the regular-season finale.
While Frontier has enjoyed success offensively this spring, it received a dynamic pitching performance from starter Olivia Deane in the quarterfinal round. Deane limited Easthampton to just three runs on six hits, striking out four and walking one.
Hoosac earned a first-round bye and blanked No. 11 Sabis, 4-0, in its quarterfinal game to join Frontier in the semifinals. Hoosac pitcher Madi Puppolo struck out five and allowed three hits in the complete-game win. The Hurricanes have lost just four games all season — Pittsfield, Wahconah, Mount Everett and Pioneer. The defeat to Pioneer was a 1-0 loss in the regular-season finale on May 31.
Runs will likely be hard to come by for the Hawks, as Puppolo is a dominant pitcher who strikes out over a batter per inning. Katie Braman is batting over .500 for the season, and the team has seven players with double-digit RBIs in its lineup.
Deane does a little bit of everything for Frontier, though there are many dangerous offensive weapons in the lineup. Leadoff batter Lily Spencer was 3-for-4 in the quarterfinal victory, while middle of the order batters Natalie Denkiewicz and Maddie Fifield are always threats to rope an extra-base hit.