GREENFIELD — Another year in the postseason, another year atop the WMass Division 3 seed line for the Turners Falls High School softball team.
For the third year in a row, the Powertown earned the No. 1 seed in the Division 3 field, as the brackets for the upcoming tournament were released Tuesday night at Greenfield High School.
After earning a first-round bye, Franklin County League champion Turners (18-2) will begin its title defense on Sunday night at 7 p.m., when it hosts the winner of the first-round game between No. 8 Gateway (14-6) and No. 9 Smith Academy (10-8). That preliminary game is set for Thursday in Huntington.
Turners blew away the rest of the Division 3 field when it came to seeding. The Thunder’s Walker System rating was 132.21, well ahead of second-seeded Mt. Everett (13-7, 113.30). McCann Tech (15-5, 107.25) and Mt. Greylock (10-10, 101.96) rounded out the top four seeds.
While the Thunder are the heavy favorites in Division 3, the field is wide open in Division 2. Defending champion Greenfield High School (14-4) was awarded the No. 4 seed in the loaded field, and after earning a first-round bye, the Green Wave open their title defense with a quarterfinal game at Vets Field against No. 5 Wahconah (14-6) on Monday night at 5 p.m.
Greenfield and Wahconah are certainly familiar with one another. The teams met in last year’s WMass final, with the Wave capturing a 2-1 victory to win the program’s first sectional crown since 1986.
“It makes it interesting,” Greenfield coach Rian Lovett said of the matchup. “I think it makes it a little more of a playoff-type atmosphere. We know they’re going to be good and we’re going to have to buckle down and play hard.”
Greenfield edged Wahconah in the Walker System ratings by just 1.51 points, enough to earn the quarterfinal home game.
“Having a home game is huge,” offered Lovett. “We typically have not played as well on the road so to play home, with our fans, having our pregame routine like we do is going to be big for keeping us focused.”
The 11-team Division 2 field features two other Recorder-area teams. Frontier Regional School (13-7) is the No. 7 seed, and the Red Hawks will play a preliminary-round game at Zabek Field in South Deerfield against 10th-seeded Belchertown (10-10) on Thursday at 4 p.m. The teams met in the season-opener back on April 12, with Frontier snagging a tidy 10-3 victory.
The winner of the Frontier-Belchertown game will travel to No. 2 Easthampton (18-2) in Monday’s quarterfinal round. The Hawks dropped a 9-1 decision to Easthampton on May 30.
Athol High School (12-8) earned the No. 9 seed in the Division 2 field, and the Red Raiders will open their postseason run on the road against No. 8 Southwick (18-2) in a preliminary-round contest Thursday at 4 p.m. Athol went 7-2 down the stretch, entering the postseason with some momentum.
The winner of the Athol-Southwick game will play top-seeded Hampshire (15-5) in the quarterfinal round on Monday in Westhampton.
Hoosac Valley earned the No. 3 seed in the Division 2 field after a 16-4 record, while fellow Berkshire County squad Taconic (10-9) is the No. 6 seed. Sabis (13-7) rounds out the Division 2 field as the No. 11 seed.