Good morning!
As predictable as the rhododendron and mountain laurel on local hillsides in spring, so, too, the Turners Falls High School softball team is in the hunt for another state title. Coach Gary Mullins and his assistants start in April when cold winds blow and wet grounds soak softball cleats and the only fans are warm-blooded family and friends.

One month they’re going to Easter Mass at Our Lady of Peace, the next month Father Stan’s coming to them at Mullins Field.

The weather’s nice, the playoffs are here and hundreds watched Wednesday’s game against Drury from behind third base and down the left field line. The field was immaculate and the foul lines were perfectly chalked. The powerful sound system played pop music and radio men Jeff Tirrell and Shawn Hubert sat on the dais behind home plate preparing to broadcast the game to townsfolk like Stash Koscinski on Dell Street. 

Warren Thomas made small talk a few feet from where George Bush was seated. “Do you watch stock car racing?” asked Thomas, who once owned a successful Ford dealership. “We’d always want the Ford to win because people would come in to buy our cars on Monday.”

George’s eyes widened when he saw the Turners Falls Athletic Club jersey my grandson Carter was wearing. “The Turners Falls Athletic Club won the first Newt Guilbault League championship,” he exclaimed. “That was in 1961.”

The 90-something Bush has come full circle from the good old days when the baseball team beat Arlington High School in the Division I championship at Fenway Park. Now these are the good old days again, except it’s the softball team that keeps winning.    

Devils in Blue

Before Wednesday’s game Mullins sat on the bench next to his players. “Who’s next?” I asked.

“I don’t know. We gotta win this game first,” he tersely replied.

Looking ahead would surely have been lethal against a spirited North Adams team that was about to give the Thunder all it could handle. Indeed, no one imagined pitcher Madi Liimatainen would need to make one run hold up for the entire game.

The first inning run came after Liimatainen doubled and was subbed by courtesy runner Autumn Dimare who stole third and hustled home on a wild pitch. Moments earlier, Drury’s catcher had ripped off her helmet after taking a foul ball off the top of her head.

“Are you OK?” the umpire asked.

“Yeah, I just can’t hear,” she said.

Undaunted, she took a practice pitch and stayed in the game.

Both teams played flawless defense and the game became more intense from inning to inning. “Watch out, the catcher’s good,” a coach shouted to a runner who subsequently was thrown out by Mia Marigliano.

The Drury players tried rattling Liimatainen during their at-bats but Liimatanen kept her cool other than a brief stretch when her pitches came in high and wide. Desperate for an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Thunder put runners on second and third with one out thanks in part to another double by Liimatainen.

“Boy if they can’t get a run here…” uttered Bush, to which Billy Wardwell responded, “If it was the Red Sox they couldn’t” and nor could the Thunder.

In the top of the seventh, Drury’s leadoff hitter singled and stole second base. Addison Talbot made a potential game-saving play on a grounder earmarked for right field and Liimatainen struck the last batter out with the tying run on third.

“Have to win some close ones every now and then,” said Madi’s father Jay Liimatainen who’s the team’s first base coach.

“It was a very difficult win,” agreed Mullins.

Saturday night at 5 p.m., Turners Falls hosts Narragansett Regional, another team whose colors are blue and white. The winner will advance to the semifinals to play either Georgetown or Maynard and despite Mullins’s sage advice it’s tough not looking ahead to Greenfield lurking across the river in a potential state final. 

Survivor Mentality

Every school in the county on the I-91 corridor was blessed with at least one postseason contender until Wednesday when Frontier’s baseball team lost to Pittsfield and a solid Tech team swooned against West Boylston.

The Greenfield High School softball team will host West Boylston at Vets Field on Sunday at 3 p.m. and the winner will play Hopedale or Hoosac Valley in the semis at a place and time TBA.

Frontier’s softball team beat South Hadley on Wednesday and is at Hampshire Regional on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. for a spot in the D-4 semis against either of two teams from southeastern Mass., Joseph Case or East Bridgewater.

Tom Suchanek’s Greenfield High School baseball team beat Millis on Wednesday to set up a quarterfinal showdown against Pioneer in Northfield. That all-Franklin County quarterfinal is slated for Sunday night at 6 p.m.

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URI won the A-10 (15-6/22-8) and traveled to Baton Rouge for the NCAA regionals against Ark.-Little Rock. After losing to Dallas Baptist, 6-2, the Rams trailed Arkansas-Little Rock, 22-10, in the bottom of the ninth inning when Ryan King hit a two out, two-run double but failed to step on the bag rounding first.

Ark.-Little Rock’s first baseman yelled for the ball and touched the bag, but the first base umpire had already checked out. He rolled with the odds and called King safe, but thanks to the relentless prying eye of replay the call was overturned and the Rams were cooked.

UMass meanwhile finished last in the A-10 (7-13/14-34-1) and now it’s on to the Mid American Conference which was won this year by Miami Ohio (35-23/16-14). The RedHawks went to Knoxville and lost to Tennessee, 9-2 and to Wake Forest, 14-13, in a four hour game that included 31 hits, 19 walks and 461 pitches.

Northeastern (25-2/49-11) was the only New England team to have a postseason impact. The Coastal Athletic Association champs beat Bethune-Cookman, 4-3, but lost twice to Miss. State in the Tallahassee Regional.

Otherwise it was Katie-bar-the-door for the pitching deprived New England colonies. Fairfield lost to Florida and Coastal Carolina by a combined score of 27-4, and Central Conn. State lost to Auburn and N.C. State by a combined 21-5 score.

SQUIBBERS: A grandstand seat close to the finish line for today’s Belmont Stakes card at Saratoga cost $1,582, or about as much as a weekend in Paris. … Doug Stotz corrected me on the name of the loin-clothed pianist who played at Fat City near Mt. Snow in the 1970s. His name was Sweet Pie (aka Paul Winer), not Sweet Pea. I was thinking of the song by Tommy Roe. … The Globe’s Peter Abraham recently referred to the Red Sox as “toe tag dead.” … Miss. State left fielder Gehrig Frei is named after the Iron Horse. …Rookie Alejandro Osuna reached base in his first seven games for the Rangers. The 5-foot-9 Osuna was signed out of the Mexico League for $125,000. … At this writing the LA Dodgers and Miami Marlins were tied for most pitching infractions with nine. The Reds, Cubs and Twins were tied for fewest with one each. … During another unwatchable ESPN game, a TV camera honed in on Shohei Ohtani for 15 seconds, showing him sitting in the dugout and spitting into a cup. Who cares what he does in the dugout? … Greenfield lost a good man with the passing of Alfie Siano who always had a smile and a story to tell. …  According to teamrankings.com, the Red Sox lead in errors per game — 0.84 followed by Colorado with 0.82. … The punchless Royals have called up Jac Caglianone who once homered in nine consecutive games for the Florida Gators. The 6-5, 250-pound infield/outfielder called the “Jacwagon” was hitting .322 with 15 HRs in 199 ABs at Triple A Omaha. … UMass football fans might want to put a hunch bet on Palazzi after former quarterback Dave Palazzi who coached at Leominster High School and was recently inducted into the Mass. High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame. … Other suggested hunch plays today: Save Us Melania, Book’em Danno and Full Moon Madness.

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@gmail.com