Gary Mullins has experienced a lot during his 40 years of coaching the Turners Falls High School softball team. On Thursday, he had a first.
Despite getting no-hit by Hampshire Regional High School eighth-grade pitcher Jocelyn Mettey, the Thunder scraped together a single unearned run in the fourth inning and managed to still win the game with a 1-0 victory in an independent game at the Bourdeau Fields Complex in Turners Falls.
Mullins said he has never won a game in which his team was no-hit.
“Sometimes you’re lucky. It’s that simple,” Mullins said. “We’ve been in an offensive funk for the past five games and today was the ultimate funk. You go back to bad habits when you’re not hitting the ball. Right now, we are in a funk and we better find a way out.”
Turners (18-1) has one final regular season game before it begins its quest for yet another WMass Division 3 title. The Thunder close out the regular season at home on Saturday against Minnechaug at 4.
The lone run of the game came in the fourth inning. Aly Murphy drew a two-out walk, one of four issued by Mettey on the day, and she stole second with Jade Tyler at the dish. Tyler then lifted a high fly ball to left-center field that the Hampshire center fielder and left fielder converged on, with the leftfielder eventually taking charge. She dropped the ball, however, and Murphy scored from second base.
That was enough for Tyler, who allowed just two hits and two walks in the complete-game effort. Tyler struck out nine and pitched around three errors by the defense.
“Jade pitched very well,” Mullins said. “She got some big strikeouts when she needed them. Jade did her job, we just didn’t help her out.”
Mettey finished with seven strikeouts. She and Brianna Sulikowski each had one hit for Hampshire.
Turners Falls 1, Hampshire 0
Hampshire …………… 000 000 0 — 0 2 1
Turners Falls ………….. 000 100 x — 1 0 3
Hits: (H) Mettey, Sulikowski.
RBI: None.
WP: Tyler (7ip, 9k, 2bb).
LP: Mettey (6ip, 7k, 4bb).