There are eight MIAA baseball programs in the Recorder coverage area.
For perhaps the first time ever, all eight are postseason-bound.
Yes, this funky, bizarre, postponement-ridden regular season is over at long last, and we’ll be playing tournament baseball in just a couple of days. But as far as Franklin County is concerned, 2019 was a record-breaking spring on the diamond.
Consider this: the Hampshire League put nine of its 12 teams in the postseason. That’s a high number, but seven of those nine are Recorder-area teams. Our lone Tri-County League representative, Franklin Tech, rounded out our Elite 8 in the Big Dance.
Historically, this area has put a healthy number of teams in the baseball postseason. Over the past 10 years, the Recorder has averaged five teams in the tournament per season. The high-water mark over that span has been six, which has happened four times in the past decade and as recently as 2017. That was a forgettable postseason, as the six teams that made the tournament (Frontier, Mohawk, Pioneer, Greenfield, Mahar and Turners Falls) went a combined 1-6 overall.
In those same 10 years, the low mark in the area came in 2015. Just three of the eight local schools found their way into postseason brackets (Mohawk, Frontier, Turners), though the trio did combine for three victories.
As far as individual programs go, Greenfield and Frontier have been the most consistent tournament squads. The Green Wave have been in every tournament over the past decade except for 2015, and they won the 2013 Division 2 crown while reaching the finals in 2014. As for Frontier, the 2013 Division 3 champions have been in every postseason over the last 10 years except for 2010. They’ve reached the Division 3 title game in two of the past three years, and it would be a surprise if they weren’t in the mix to play in the big game yet again.
After a five-year hiatus from postseason play, Franklin Tech qualified for the second year in a row after a 13-7 season in 2019.
Over the past 10 years, here’s a breakdown of how many postseason berths each program has managed:
Greenfield (9), Frontier (9), Mahar (7), Turners Falls (7), Pioneer (6), Mohawk (6), Athol (5), FC Tech (3)
Regardless, one noteworthy storyline to follow when the seeds and brackets are released tonight at Greenfield High School (5:30 p.m.) will be how the Walker System handles the conglomerate of area teams in the field. One measure of the Walker is record against tournament teams, and the fact that almost the entire Hampshire League qualified could bode well for teams like Frontier, Greenfield and Athol — all three squads sit with 13 or more wins, including a bundle against tourney teams.
“I think that’s gonna help us,” Mahar skipper Art Billings said of the consistent high level of competition this spring. “We’ve played right with most of the teams on our schedule this year. As long as we stay away from that one bad inning we seem to have, I think we’ll put ourselves in good shape to win games.”
Of the eight local teams in the postseason, three qualified with sub-.500 records.
Mohawk Trail finished 8-12 overall, but put together an impressive 7-3 mark in HL East games. That was good enough for a runner-up finish behind Easthampton, getting the Warriors into the Division 3 field. They’ll be a dangerous team toward the back-end of the seed line.
Pioneer went 9-11 overall but got into the Division 4 field under the Sullivan Rule. Playing in the predominantly-Division 3-filled HL, the Panthers had a winning record overall against Division 4 foes, and could be rewarded with a decent seed as a result of some solid wins over higher-division squads.
Turners also qualified for the Division 4 tournament for the second time in three years with some help from the Sullivan Rule. The Thunder went 8-12, but they’ve known for some time that they were postseason-bound, winning three of their first four games against Div. 4 squads. A win over Hopkins in early May was the clincher.
Hampshire League Sullivan Rule qualifiers have been seeded relatively well in the Division 4 tourney in recent years. Smith Academy was the No. 5 seed in last year’s field with a 7-11 record, and the Falcons also earned the No. 3 seed in the 2017 field after going 8-10. Turners was the No. 7 seed in the 2017 tournament after posting a 9-11 mark. In 2014, the Powertown went 9-11 and was awarded the No. 5 seed. That team ultimately reached the WMass championship game, falling to Hopkins Academy, 5-2.