The 2023 MIAA spring sports season officially concluded on Sunday, with champions being crowned across the state.
The postseason run saw one Franklin County team hoist a state championship trophy while a number of other local teams went on big runs to help set the foundation for years to come.
Here’s some leftover notes and takeaways from what was a thrilling spring season:
And that may be an understatement.
Greenfield took home the Division 5 title for the second straight year, and with just three departing seniors, don’t expect the Green Wave to be going anywhere anytime soon.
The top five in the batting order — Anna Bucala, Ainslee Flynn, Carly Blanchard, MacKenzie Paulin and Amber Bergeron — will all be back in a lineup that produced runs against just about every team they played. With Paulin also returning in the circle, it’ll take a monster effort next spring to take down Greenfield come postseason time.
Who will give the Green Wave the most competition? It’ll likely be from other area teams.
Turners Falls knocked off Greenfield twice in the regular season and had a young team that grew immensely during the season according to coach Gary Mullins. The Thunder won the 2021 state championship, made it to the semis in 2022 and fell to the Green Wave in the finals this year. They’re always in the mix, and ace Madi Liimatainen will also just be a junior next year.
It might have been Franklin Tech in the state finals if Turners didn’t rally in the sixth to get past its crosstown foe in the state quarters. The Eagles also have a star sophomore pitcher in Hannah Gilbert, who went 16-4 while striking out 222 batters and allowing just 47 runs in 118 innings pitched this spring. At the plate she batted .534 with 12 home runs.
Kylee Gamache batted .455 on the season while Kait Trudeau (.452) are two other bats that’ll be back for Tech next season.
Frontier, which made the Div. 5 semis last spring and won a state tournament game this year, brings back its entire lineup while Mohawk Trail also returns a good chunk of its squad for a program that took a step forward and won a state tournament game this spring.
After losing all three starting pitchers from a year ago, it was going to be on the younger Green Wave players to step up this spring and they did just that.
Between Michael Pierce, Caleb Thomas and Deven Dubie, Greenfield coach Tom Suchanek found a group of arms that gave him strong production this year and helped lead the Green Wave — the 26th-seeded team in the MIAA Div. 5 field — get to the quarterfinals.
Greenfield started three freshmen and two sophomores this season, and with all a year older, a run in the 2024 Div. 5 field wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
Kevin Luippold hasn’t been coaching for long, but he’s already had immense success on the diamond in Northfield.
In his two years running the Panthers, Luippold has led them to a Western Mass. Class D title, a runner-up appearance in the Class D tournament as well as back-to-back appearances in the MIAA Div. 5 semifinals.
Don’t expect any drop-off with Pioneer next year, as the club brings back its two top arms in Hugh Cyhowski and Ethan Quinn. The Panthers will look to get over the semifinal hump with goals of hoisting a state championship trophy.
Redhawks skipper Chris Williams waited a long time to take home a Western Mass. title.
After going 0-4 in title games as a coach, Williams and Frontier never gave up in their Class C title game at Vets Field this spring, coming back to win the game in the seventh against Smith Vocational.
It was a veteran Redhawk team that got the job done, with Frontier going on to win a pair of state tournament games — one on the road against No. 3 Oxford — building momentum going into next season.
The Senators knew they were going to have to play their best baseball down the stretch to secure a postseason spot, needing to win two of their final four games to finish with a .500 record and get a bid to the MIAA Div. 5 state tournament.
With Pioneer, Smith Academy, Smith Vocational and Greenfield — all tournament teams — on the schedule, that wasn’t going to be easy.
Mahar started things off by falling to the Panthers, but came back to defeat Smith Academy. The Sens then fell to the top-seeded Vikings in the Class C tournament, meaning they entered their non-playoff game against the Green Wave needing a win to keep their season alive. The Sens battled late and earned a 4-3 victory to finish the season with a 10-10 record in Dan Guertin’s first year as varsity skipper.
Mahar fell to O’Bryant in the prelims, but getting that postseason experience under its belt will pay dividends down the line with a for a Senator team that brings back a good nucleus of its roster next year.
Three local athletes qualified and make the nine-plus hour round trip to Bangor, Maine to compete in the New England Interscholastic Outdoor Track and Field Championship, and it was a worthwhile journey for all three.
Mohawk Trail’s Emmett Johnson earned a sixth place finish in the mile while Frontier’s Caroline Crocker placed 10th in the 100 hurdles and Ayla Starr earned 18th in the pole vault. That’s a very impressive showing against the top athletes in New England.
How about the start Sean MacDonald and Courtney Parent have had with the Frontier boys volleyball team?
It shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the success the two have had with the Redhawk girls volleyball team, but the duo have built the boys squad into a well-respected program in just two years.
After all, Frontier took home its second straight Western Mass. Class C title, giving it two trophies in two years.
In two years, the Redhawks have gone 34-5 as a program, doing so with all players who just began playing the sport in the last two years.
This year, Frontier’s goal was to win a state tournament match and it did that, knocking off East Longmeadow (3-0). All three of the Redhawk losses this year came to West Springfield, which knocked them out in the Round of 16.
Not a bad way to build momentum in a young program.