NORTHFIELD — The Pioneer baseball team isn’t a squad to be messed with, nor is anyone who deigns to diss the local nine. That was made clear with a sign behind the Panthers bench on Saturday that said, “Welcome to Schitts Creek.”
It was a reference to my Saturday column and an intended shot at administrators for neglecting the athletic facilities. Perception is everything and the first hint of trouble came when a player’s father told me, “After your Schitt’s Creek comment, my wife’s so mad she won’t talk to you.”
When I walked over to the Panthers scorekeeper to get the lineup he said, “I’m not talking to you,” and walked away.
That’s when Mike Cadran noticed the sign and laughed.
It reminded me of a story Michael Hoffman told me about his father who was a sports columnist for the Lynn Daily Evening Item. Red Hoffman was a stout Irishman with a Marine crewcut who covered schoolboy sports around Greater Boston. One evening a rock came crashing through the window.
“Want me to get him dad!” yelled Michael.
“No,” said his father, “it means people are reading the column.”
Those are the perils when people take a word the wrong way, or take it the right way and flat-out disagree. “I do a lot of bicycling, and the way I look at it is the bicycle doesn’t make the rider,” said Jason Ring, whose daughters Caroline and Hailey both play sports at Pioneer.
“You scored a point and missed the story,” texted first year superintendent Patricia Kinsella. We met before the game and she elaborated about the state of sports. “If Pioneer is going to make it, we need to create an identity for ourselves and sports is crucial to that identity. We need competitive teams for the physical and behavioral health of our students.”
Kinsella introduced me to JV softball coach Tina Riddell and first year AD Kerry Baird, who said to add the basketball court to my list of much-needed capital improvements.
Hoops coach Scott Thayer stood behind the backstop. Next to him was father-in-law Tom Suchanek, who’s approaching 650 wins as the Greenfield High School baseball coach. His daughter Erin Thayer taught my grandchildren in elementary school. She gave me a hug in front of everyone, and was instantly added to my Christmas card list.
Their son Brayden Thayer had a hit, scored a run and made a nice catch in right field on a wonderful day for baseball. World Series bunting hung from outside Mim’s Market and laughing children played wiffle ball in the tall grass behind the grandstand.
Chairs were lined seven deep down left field and a strong contingent of Sutton faithful had made the 75-mile trip from south of Worcester. Former Northampton High School coach Mike Quinlan put his chair next to the visitors grandstand but said he had no dog in the hunt. “I just like watching high school baseball.”
Brad Baker was back where scouts had watched him pitch in 1999. The Red Sox took him with the 40th overall pick and gave him a hefty signing bonus.
Sutton’s nickname is the Sammies, and the girls are the Suzies. They play in the Dual Valley Conference and their No. 3 hitter Pat Kostiw has a full ride to Assumption College. He had two hits and helped Sutton to an early 6-1 lead, but it was a sand castle waiting for a tsunami.
In the fifth inning Pioneer sent 13 batters to the plate and pounded pitcher Josh Jenkins for seven runs on six hits and four walks. “We ran into a big inning,” said Sammies coach Casey Cummins. “That’s a great team.”
“Five,” Jenkins said, referring to which batter gave him the most trouble – Pioneer’s Ethan Quinn. “I had him down 0-2 and he golfed it over their heads. He wound up catching barrel all day.”
“I literally hit it off the ground,” agreed the soft-spoken Quinn, holding his hands four inches apart. “On the mound I was kinda nervous.”
Despite his mound struggles, Quinn’s brother Jason picked him up with two scoreless innings of relief. Every Pioneer batter reached safely at least once. Nobody struck out until the last at-bat in the fifth inning.
Alex McClelland took Peter Loud’s spot in the order and singled, sacrifice bunted and drove in a run. Loud was en route to Logan Airport in Boston. “I’m living my dream through my son, and he’s going to France,” lamented his father Alex.
Pioneer’s defense stifled potentially big innings. Catcher Braeden Tsipenyuk threw out two would-be base stealers and tagged out two more runners at home plate. Center fielder Ian Simpson tracked down four deep drives and left fielder Sean Allen threw out Sutton’s Ben Connors trying to score from second base.
“I didn’t think we were down at any point,” said Pioneer coach Kevin Luippold. “I got a little nervous when they started tattooing the ball but we always string a good inning together.”
The win appeared to take the sting out of any unintended hurt the Schitt’s Creek reference caused. In the words of AD Kerry Baird: “You ain’t gotta be pretty to win.”