It’s a shame Mother Nature got in the way of a great game at Dunkin’ Park in Hartford last week. 

The game between the Athol and Franklin Tech baseball teams that was slated to be played at the 6,121-seat home of the Hartford Yard Goats, the Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, was canceled due to poor field conditions. No make up is currently scheduled 

It’s a tough break for both teams, who were looking forward to the experience of playing in such a large stadium. Not only that, but it was a game that, in all likelihood, would go a long way to determining the Bi-County League North title. 

Athol was one game away from winning the league a season ago and returned a squad that would most certainly be in the mix to win a title this spring. Outside of a clunker against Drury, the Bears (4-1) scored 10 or more runs in their first four wins while not giving up more than five runs in any of those contests going into Wednesday’s game against Mount Everett. In the league, Athol is out to a 3-0 start. 

After the Mount Everett game, the Bears are off until April 25 when they take on Greenfield. That’ll allowing them time to recoup, make corrections and gear up for a big push down the stretch. 

“We have a big one [Wednesday] then we’re off for awhile,” Athol coach Josh Talbot said after Tuesday’s win over Turners Falls. “It’s basically our midseason break. Our kids have been going basically every day since March 17. They’ll get a couple days after the Everett game then we’ll get back to work. We have some lofty goals. We want to win the league title that slipped through our fingers last year, we want to host tournament games, we want to win tournament games. We have a group of 17 and 18 year olds who love being with each other and are putting in the work. Hopefully we’re able to grind each inning and continue to play good baseball.”

Franklin Tech has had similar success on the diamond so far. The Eagles are off to their best start in years, winning their opening four games of the season with two of those triumphs coming in league play. Turners Falls, the defending champs, will be right back in the mix and gained confidence after an impressive non-league win over rival Greenfield last week. 

While there is no makeup date yet for the first meeting between Tech and Athol, the two are still slated to play on May 6 at 4 p.m. in Turners Falls. 

Athol softball turns to Dodge

On the softball diamond, the Bears will have a new coach for the remainder of the season. 

Assistant coach Skylar Dodge will take over for Jerry Duguay, who stepped down on Tuesday. Dodge, a former Mahar star who was an assistant for the Bears last year, will be looking to turn around an Athol squad that is off to an 0-3 start. 

Frontier boys tennis earns monumental win 

Oliver Brown’s win on the court on Monday was crucial for two separate reasons. 

Brown became the winningest player in Frontier program history with a victory in No. 3 singles against Lee as it was the seniors 21st career victory. The win also helped the Redhawks earn a victory over traditional Western Mass. power Lee, with Frontier picking up a 3-2 victory. It’s the first time the Redhawk boys walked away victorious against the Wildcats. 

Brian Campbell’s squad is off to a 5-0 start heading into Tuesday’s match against PVCICS. After hosting a Div. 4 state tournament match last year but being upset in the Round of 32, this Frontier squad is showing it has the talent to be right back in the mix come the postseason. 

Local milestones

Two career milestones were passes last week, cementing a pair of local softball players as some of the most accomplished players in their programs’ history. 

It started with Turners Falls hurler Madi Liimatainen, who became the first play in storied history of the Thunder program to go over the 1,000-strikeout milestone. Later in the week Franklin Tech's Hannah Gilbert earned her 500th-career strikeout, Gilbert doing this after pitching for the Eagles the last three seasons. 

Throw in Greenfield’s MacKenzie Paulin, who is well over 500 strikeouts for her career, and there’s a good chance the three best pitchers in the Div. 5 field all play their home games within five miles of each other.