TURNERS FALLS — Jade Tyler made her impact early and often on Thursday against Frontier.
Leading 1-0 going into the bottom of the second, Holly Myers reached with a single, followed by base hits from Hannah Marchefka and Olivia Whittier. Whittier’s hit scored Myers, and Taylor Murphy walked to load the bases. Tyler broke the game wide open, smashing a grand slam over the center field wall to extend the lead to 6-1. The blast helped pave the way to a 13-1 Franklin County League victory in five innings under the lights at the Bourdeau Fields Complex.
Tyler also picked up the win in the pitching circle, striking out eight and allowing just two hits.
“Jade has been an incredible player for us this year,” Turners coach Gary Mullins said. “She made some big outs for us (pitching). We hit the ball well enough and it was a good win.”
The bottom of the Thunder order led off a rally in the third inning, with Myers cranking a double and Marchefka hitting an RBI single.
An error allowed two runs to score before Whittier drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. Murphy then hit a single, Tyler walked to load the bases and Taryn Thayer crushed a two-run double to quickly give the Powertown a 12-1 lead going into the fourth inning.
“We don’t give our seven, eight, nine hitters a free ride,” Mullins said. “If they want to play, they have to help us out and they were excellent tonight. They did well and turned it over to the top of our order, and our top is pretty good. If you hit seven, eight, nine you’re going to win a lot of softball games.”
Needing just one run to end the game due to the 12-run rule in the bottom of the fifth, Whittier opened the inning with a walk before Murphy got on with a single. Tyler put an exclamation point on her big game, drilling a double that brought Whittier home and sealed the win.
Frontier had its best chance to cut into the Turners lead in the top of the third, as the Redhawks loaded the bases with one out thanks to an Ashley Taylor single followed by Makayla Santos reaching on an error that scored Taylor. Olivia Deane singled and CC Green reached after being hit by a pitch to pack the bags.
Tyler got out of the jam, striking out Charlotte Doulette and retiring Lucia Doulette on a fly ball that nearly made its way over the fence.
“Charlotte Doulette is a really good hitter,” Mullins said. “Jade was able to strike her out and then her sister came up and came close to hitting it out of the park but it stayed in. They put a scare into us.”
The win has Turners perfect at 6-0 on the season, 5-0 in the FCL. That’s one game ahead of second-place Greenfield (4-1, 4-1) while Frontier is one and a half games back at 5-2, 4-2.