Frontier Holds off Monument Mountain Comback Bid

GREENFIELD, Mass. -- The Monument Mountain baseball team Wednesday rallied with two outs for three runs in the top of the seventh but came up short in an 8-5 loss to Frontier in the semi-finals of the Western Massachusetts Division 3 tournament.

 

Second-seeded Frontier (21-1) moves on to Saturday’s sectional final against No. 1 Taconic (18-4), a 15-4 winner over Easthampton on Wednesday night.

 

Frontier Wednesday came back from a 2-0 deficit by scoring three in the bottom of the fourth. It then tacked on three more in the fifth and two in the sixth to build a six-run lead.

 

In the top of the seventh, Max Joyner hit a one-out single to start the Spartans’ comeback bid.

 

After a ground ball moved Joyner to second, Tyler Wade drove him in with a triple to right. Jackson Blanchard then singled to drive in a run, and he came home on Graham Herrick’s triple to right.

 

But Frontier went to reliever Connor Waitkus, who induced a ground ball out to end the game.

 

Matthew Hildreth earned the win for Frontier, allowing two runs in five innings of work.

 

Wade was a hard-luck loser for Monument Mountain, allowing three runs but just one earned run in 3-⅓ innings on the mound.

 

Herrick had a 2-for-4 day to lead an eight-hit Spartan attack, and Michael Goretti doubled and drove in a pair of runs.