TURNERS FALLS — After the Turners Falls baseball team beat Athol in the final regular season game of 2024 to win the Bi-County League North title, the Bears have been waiting to get their revenge against the Thunder. 

That came on Tuesday. 

Athol scored two runs in the first inning, four in the second, six in the third, two in the fourth and five in the the fifth to run away with a 19-5 road victory in five innings. 

“That’s a feisty group,” Bears coach Josh Talbot said of Turners. “They fought back against Tech and they jumped on Greenfield last week. They came back from behind on us twice last year. We weren’t going to dismiss them. We knew they were going to fight and they put an inning together in the bottom of the fourth. Thankfully we got it together and put it away. We have a lot of respect for Turners and we were here on business. We took nothing for granted and wanted to make sure we came away with a win.” 

Athol (4-1) finished with 15 hits at the plate on Tuesday, led by Logan Cormier who hit a three-run home run in the third inning that gave the Bears a 10-1 lead. He followed it up with a solo shot in the fourth inning to extend the Athol lead to 13-1. 

The senior added a single and finished with five RBIs. 

“We’ve been holding a grudge since last year’s game,” Cormier said. “We blew leads in both games against them last year and that’s stuck with me. It was a great win for the team today. Both [home runs] felt good off the bat. The first one I got a little bit under but I knew it was gone.”

Cormier said he’s seen a more focused group this season, and the team has its sights set on a league title. 

“The whole offseason everyone has put in the work,” Cormier said. “It’s a great team. We’re working hard in the cage and the practices are different than they were last year. It’s been great to see.” 

After a big win over rival Greenfield on Friday, the Thunder (1-3) were running short on arms to throw on Tuesday. 

Jackson Cogswell — who had never pitched before — got the start and once the game was out of hand and considering pitch count rules, Turners coach Scott Minckler was forced to try different pitchers to keep players available for Wednesday’s contest against Lee. 

“It was tough and it’s a tough game,” Minckler said. “We have to learn from it. We’re young and pitching wise, we don’t have a lot of pitchers so we had to battle today. We had to throw four or five today just to suck up innings. We did what we could.” 

After two close losses to start the season, Minckler said he’s hoping to see his inexperienced team turn a corner and find some consistency on the field. 

“We have to find the level,” Minckler said. “We lost two games early in the season by one run, got a high off the Greenfield win and we knew coming into this that Athol was probably going to be the toughest team we saw in our league. They’re good. They have 21 seniors and juniors and I have 12 total kids. Give them all the praise, they hit the crap out of the ball today and we couldn’t field. You can’t win a game with eight errors and that was only five innings.” 

Anthony Lopez-Hippler pitched all five for Athol, striking out nine and scattering four hits. 

At the plate, Ethan Heuer clubbed three hits and drove in two runs, Marc Gould tallied two hits and four RBIs, Oliver Johnson had a pair of hits and drove in a run, Alex Lavigne singled and drove in two while Hayden Barrieau added a hit and an RIB for the Bears. 

“We talked a lot about our approach,” Talbot said. “If we go into our book a lot of big at bats came with two strikes where guys were fighting throughout the entire at bat and putting the ball in play. That’s the type of stuff that takes you from being OK to being good. We’ve been good on offense so far because we aren’t giving up free at bats. That’s been our motto, to make them earn it and guys are doing a great job.”

Ledwin Villafana hit a three-run home run in the fourth for Turners while Julian Kaiser, Ethan Eichorn and Nathaniel Trinque (RBI) hit safely for Turners. 

Softball

Frontier 11, Taconic 5 — Ashley Taylor hit a major milestone on Tuesday, smashing her 100th career hit in the fifth inning after driving in a pair of runs with her second double of the afternoon to help the Redhawks earn a Franklin County League West victory in South Deerfield Tuesday. 

Skyler Steele went 3-for-3 with two home runs and four RBIs while Delaney Fifield singled, homered and drove in two. Olivia Machon and Whitney Campbell each had a hit and an RBI while Raine Wonsey doubled at the plate and struck out five in the circle in the win. 

Franklin Tech 22, Pioneer 11 — It was a high-scoring affair from the start, with the Eagles leading 11-9 after two innings. 

Franklin Tech locked in defensively from there and scored eight in the final two innings to pull away with a Franklin County League East win in Northfield on Tuesday. 

Hannah Gilbert singled, doubled and drove in three at the plate. She came on in relief to pitch and struck out 11 while scattering four hits in the win. Alison George homered and drove in two, Cordelia Guerin doubled twice and drove in one, Skylei Lapan finished with two hits and two RBIs while Samantha Duncan added two hits and an RBI in the winning effort. 

Laylah Goulston tallied three hits, one a home run, and drove in two, Taylor Chase singled, doubled, tripled and drove in three, Jacobia Tyminski (double) and Jaelyn Boliski each knocked three hits while Luci Burnap, Allison Clary and Natalie Johnson hit safely for Pioneer. 

Greenfield 13, Wahconah 1 — MacKenzie Paulin struck out nine and gave up just three hits in the Green Wave’s Franklin County League West win on the road on Tuesday. 

Hopkins 12, Mohawk Trail 0 (5) — Riley Dyer recorded a pair of hits for the Warriors in a Franklin County League East loss to the Golden Hawks in Hadley Tuesday. 

Turners 9, Mount Greylock 1 — Maddie Dietz cleared the bases twice, once with a double and once with a triple to drive in six runs and lead the Thunder to a Franklin County League West victory at Gary Mullins Field Tuesday. 

Madi Liimatainen struck out 16, walked two and scattered two hits while adding a hit and an RBI at the plate while Mia Marigliano, Ameliya Galbraith, Ivy Lopez and Autumn Thornton hit safely in the win for Turners. 

Boys volleyball

Southwick 3, Athol 0 — The Rams earned a 25-17, 25-23, 25-18 victory over the Bears in Southwick on Tuesday. 

East Longmeadow 3, Frontier 0 — Unforced errors plagued the Redhawks in a 25-9, 25-19, 25-23 loss to the Spartans at Goodnow Gymnasium Tuesday. 

Tegan Dexter put down eight kills, Will Reading tallied seven kills, Nate Rivera had six kills and 17 digs while Tavo Vincent-Warner dished 19 assists in the loss. 

Girls track

Frontier 126, Turners Falls 19 — Lilly Novak won the shot put (30 feet, 1 inch) and the discus (96-4) while Hannah Davis came in first in the long jump (14-4½), triple jump (29-½) and 100-meter hurdles (17.9 seconds) in the Redhawks’ win over the Thunder in South Deerfield Tuesday. 

Rounding out the Frontier winners were Bailey Cusson in javelin (86-3), Olive Klaus in pole vault (8-0), Mary Burt in high jump (4-10), Liv Christensen in the mile (6:23), Josie Fosnot in the 400 (64.9), Maddie Antes in the 400 hurdles (76.8), Addie Morrey in the 800 (2:37) and Sylvie DiBartolomeo in the 2 mile (12:29).

The Redhawks won the 4x100 and 4x400 relays. 

Jakhia Williams won the 100 (13.4) and 200 (28.4) for Turners. 

Mohawk Trail 101, Greenfield 40 — Zephry Jetzon won the long jump (14-6), triple jump (31-6.25), 100 (13.1) and 200 (28.6) while Morgan Raffa won the discus (95-10) and javelin (96-3) for the Warriors in a win over the Green Wave Tuesday. 

Other Mohawk Trail winners were Lydia Pinkham in pole vault (6-6), Avery Johnston in shot put (27-3.25), Heidi Helenek in the 100 hurdles (19.1), Virginia Krezmien in the mile (5:47.7) and 2 mile (13:02.2) and Anya Read in the 800 (2:38.2). The Warriors won the 4x400 relay (4:55.7). 

Greenfield winners were Suhani Patel in the high jump (4-8), Henley Gilstrap in the 400 (67.9) and Kyra Tamsin in the 400 hurdles (78.4). The Wave won teh 4x100 relay (57.3). 

Boys track

Frontier 107, Franklin Tech 32 — The Redhawks had the winner in each event, led by Garrett Dredge in the triple jump (37-9) and long jump (18-11.25), Ben Cachiguango in the 110 hurdles (15.7) and 400 hurdles (63.1) and Adrien Pazmandy in the 400 (52.1) and 200 (23.8) in Frontier’s win over the Eagles in South Deerfield Tuesday. 

Other Redhawk winners were Ezra Rich in the shot put (36-2), John Reloj in discus (106-1), Julian Adams in the javelin (111-4), Grayden Gifford in the high jump (5-6), Henry Pleasant in the pole vault (9-0), Ian Paciorek in the 100 (11.7), Evan Hedlun in the mile (4:48.7), Charles Dennis in the 800 (2:30.1) and Dominic Sarno in the 2 mile (13:59.3). Frontier won the 4x100 (47.7) and 4x400 (3:51.3) relays. 

Greenfield 81, Mohawk Trail 64 — Greenfield’s Mason Youmell won the triple jump (38-3), pole vaul t (8-6), 110 hurdles (16.2) and 400 hurdles (64.1) in a dominant outing to propel Greenfield to a win in Buckland on Tuesday. 

Other Greenfield winners were Jerry Ven in shot put (36-9.25), Jon Breor in discus (97-4) and Jack Laurie in javelin (138-2) and the 100 (11.5). The Green Wave won the 4x100 (45.6) and 4x400 (4:03.9) relays. 

Mohawk Trail winners were Tanner Biagini in the long jump (18-5.5) and the 200 (23.3), Chay Mojallali in the high jump (6-3), Peter Healy in the mile (4:56.8) and 2 mile (11:48.3), Crimson Helenek in the 400 (56.9) and Aymeric Loucka in the 800 (2:15.6).