WESTFIELD, Mass. – With two out and nobody on, down one run in the bottom of the seventh, the top-seeded Hampshire Regional softball team was on life support in Tuesday’s Western Massachusetts Class regional final.
But Hampshire made its way back from the brink, and then made the most of its new life.
Hailey Wodecki singled to left with one out in the bottom of the eighth to drive in the winning run as Hampshire came from behind to beat Wahconah, 4-3, at Westfield State.
Hampshire used a wild pitch and an error to score the tying run in the seventh, but there was no doubt about the game-winner, a line drive off the bat of finals MVP Wodecki, who went 3-for-4 in the game.
“Disappointed, with the way that we prepare, the amount of emphasis we place on playing good defense, to make three errors today was uncharacteristic,” Wahconah coach Dustin Belcher said.
“But give them credit. They were down to the final strike a couple of times. And they just kept battling and competing. Hats off to them. Take nothing away from them. They earned it down the stretch.”
Hampshire scored a run in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings after Wahconah took a 3-1 lead with a two-run fifth inning.
Second-seeded Wahconah fell behind early when Teresa Saltis hit an RBI triple in the bottom of the first.
The equalizer came in the third.
Emma Belcher drew a leadoff walk and moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by Dani Barry. Two batters later, Taylar Hickey singled down the first-base line to drive in Belcher and make it a 1-1 game.
Meanwhile, Avery Vale-Cruz (11 strikeouts) settled down after the first inning hiccup, pitching around base runners and holding Hampshire off the board through the middle innings.
“I think Avery did a good job for us today, gave us a chance,” Belcher said.
Emma Belcher jump-started Wahconah’s second rally with a leadoff single up the middle in the fifth. Barry and Vale-Cruz followed with walks, and Casey Wilson drove home Belcher with a single up the middle that also moved Barry to third. Barry then came home on an RBI groundout from Hickey to make it 3-1.
Hampshire pitcher Joss Mettey avoided further damage by rolling up a double play that went 6-3-2 to catch a Wahconah runner trying to score from second and end the inning.
Bri Sulkowski hit an RBI single to center to drive in Saltis in the bottom of the sixth, but Vale-Cruz got the next two batters on a fly ball to left and a called third strike to end that threat.
In the seventh, Katelyn Baker worked a walk from an 0-2 count with two batters out. She then went to second on a pitch to the backstop and scored when the throw to stop her at third got into the outfield, tying the game 3-3.
Wahconah got a runner with one out in the top of the eighth, but Mettey got a fly ball to center and a ground ball to third to get Hampshire back in the dugout.
She then led off the bottom of the eighth with a single to left, and her courtesy runner stole second base ahead of Wodecki’s one-out, walkoff single.
The silver lining for Wahconah is that unlike Western Mass finals losses of yesteryear – or last year – Tuesday’s game does not end its season. Both Hampshire and Wahconah now wait Wednesday’s release of the MIAA state tournament brackets to find out their next opponents.
“LIke I said to [my players], it should sting,” Dustin Belcher said. “It’s OK for it to sting. If you put a lot of work and effort into it, it’s going to sting.
“But the nice thing with the new format, we go back to practice tomorrow. We get right back at it. And hopefully we see them again on a big stage.”
