Mounties Battle, Can't Catch Hopkins

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Already ahead by eight runs going to the top of the seventh, the Hopkins Academy softball team Sunday rallied for 11 more runs.

 

The Golden Hawks were not running up the score.

 

They were just trying to stay ahead of Mount Greylock.

 

The Mounties scored six of their own in the bottom of the seventh to cut into a 19-run deficit but ran out of outs as Hopkins took a 27-14 win to earn a berth in the Division 5 State Semi-Finals.

 

Isabelle Palmisno went 5-for-6 with three RBIs, and the seventh-seeded Hawks (19-2) worked 16 walks in earning the right to face Turners Falls in the Final Four this week.

 

Despite scoring three runs in the top of the first and taking a 6-0 lead through three, the Hawks could not shake the second-seeded Mounties (16-8), who hit three homers and scored in double figures for the 14th time this season.

 

"There's no quit in our team," Mount Greylock coach Mark Pierson said. "I'm very proud of the effort that they put in today and all year.

 

"We just kept encouraging them and trying to stay positive. I'm sure they felt a little defeated, but, obviously, we battled. The sixth, seventh innings, we scored 10 runs."

 

The first rally came in the fourth, when Mount Greylock cut deeply into its early six-run deficit.

 

Mila Marcisz got the inning started by bunting her way aboard, and Abby Whitley followed with a single. Kelsey MacHaffie's productive out moved two runners into scoring position for Mia Filiault, who singled down the right field line to make it 6-2.

 

Then, with two out, Malia Koffi hit the first of her two home runs to make it 6-4.

 

A.J. Pelkey singled, and Emma Newberry crushed a ball to right-center but was denied an RBI when it bounced over the fence for a ground-rule double to leave runners at second and third.

 

Hopkins got the final out on a line drive to left field to end the threat.

 

It then got two runs back in the top of the fifth and eight in the top of the sixth to go ahead, 16-4.

 

The sixth-inning rally ended the day in the circle for senior Kami Sweet, who struggled with control issues throughout. Pierson said his No. 1 pitcher may have had some fatigue working against her in her 23rd appearance of the spring.

 

"It could be," he said. "It's been a crazy week with games and prom and class picnics and graduation and stuff. Maybe it just caught up to them in the end."

 

Undaunted by the 12-run deficit, Mount Greylock cranked up its offense in the bottom of the sixth.

 

Sweet hit a three-run home run among six Mounties hits as they scored four times to get within eight.

 

The Hawks pulled away for good with their 11-run seventh, which saw Laynie Bailey hit a three-run home run to cap the rally.

 

In the bottom of the seventh, Kayleigh Jaros led off with a single, and Koffi hit her second round-tripper. A combination of errors and walks loaded the bases for Marcisz (3-for-5), who drove in a run.

 

Abby Whitley plated Newberry with a ground ball,a nd MacHaffie drove in a pair with a single up the middle before Hopkins starter Kaelyn Zakaitis, who was pulled in the fourth and reinserted midway through the seventh, got the final two outs.

 

Although Mount Greylock saw its season come to an end on Sunday, it is the season, not the end, that Pierson had on his mind.

 

"We play a difficult schedule, and to finish [seeded] No. 2 in the state, overall is fantastic," Pierson said. "It's an unbelievable accomplishment. Whatever happened today, I look back more on the season.

 

"Some of the girls had great individual seasons, and as a team, we played tremendous."