Good morning!
If the first week of the UMass softball season was any indication, it’ll be a long first year in the Mid-American Conference for coach Danielle Henderson and her Minutewomen.
At the River City Leadoff in Jacksonville last weekend, UMass was beaten in back-to-back doubleheaders against North Florida and Jacksonville by a cumulative 35-1 score and lost to Colgate, 3-2, in eight innings.
The pitching staff, composed of freshman Kelsey Blanchette, sophomore Olivia Cutuli, junior Hannah Streicher and grad transfer Eliana Raposo, gave up 29 earned runs in 28 innings. Catchers Olivia Packard and Katherine Heslin were 0-for-13 on stolen base attempts and fielders made at least one error at every position except first base and right field, nine in all.
Yesterday the Minutewomen played Penn and the College of Charleston at the Low Country Classic in Charleston. Today they play Sacred Heart and Charleston, and tomorrow they’ll re-up again against Sacred Heart.
Next weekend they travel to Boca Raton for the Joan Joyce Classic against Florida Atlantic, Villanova, Kansas and the University of Southern Indiana. Joan Joyce was a fast-pitch phenom from Waterbury, Connecticut, who coached FAU’s softball team from 1995 until she died four years ago at age 82.
In her heyday she pitched for the Raybestos Brakettes of Stratford, Connecticut, and in 1961 she struck out Ted Williams at a charity event in her hometown. Her obituary in the New York Times mentioned the time a fishing buddy asked Williams to name the toughest pitcher he ever faced. “You won’t believe this,” said Williams, “but it was a teenage girl.”
The Minutewomen always get beaten in the early part of the schedule down south because warm weather teams get the best players — but not that badly. Indeed, at this writing the rest of the MAC is a combined 21-24 playing the same caliber opponent.
Miami-Ohio is the class of the MAC. The RedHawks have won six straight league titles and four straight conference championships, and at this writing are 4-0. At last year’s NCAA regionals they beat UNC but lost to Tennessee and Ohio State.
The Minutewomen will open the MAC portion of the schedule on March 13 at Kent State. The Golden Flashes finished last in 2025 (4-22;12-39 overall) and are 2-3 this year. The first UMass home game is March 20 against Toledo which is also currently 0-5.
AD Ryan Bamford must make Sortino Field look presentable; take down the torn and faded banners and put the clutter where fans and visiting teams won’t see it. It was embarrassing to look at last season, but it’s a new dawn.
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Giving it the college try
Franklin County’s gold dust twins, Madi Liimatainen and MacKenzie Paulin, have launched their college softball careers at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont, and Merrimack College in North Andover.
At Turners Falls High School Liimatainen helped the Big Blue win three state titles in five seasons. She moved from behind the plate after eighth grade and into the circle where she was 74-27 with 1,283 strikeouts and a 1.81 ERA in 672.1 innings and was recruited to play at St. Mike’s by eighth-year coach Nick Goodreau.
“In the fall she was playing anywhere the coach needed her,” said her father Jay Liimatainen. “She was looking forward to playing the field but realized she missed pitching and being in control of the game.”
The Purple Knights haven’t had a winning season since they began posting records online in 2006, but they were 18-19-1 last year and this year they have Liimatainen. They open against D’Youville University of Buffalo on March 13 at the USSSA Space Coast Complex in Viera, Florida, the former spring training home of the Washington Nationals.
After ten games in seven days, they’ll come north and start the D-II Northeast 10 Conference schedule on March 21 at Pace in Pleasantville, New York.
Paulin preps for primetime
Paulin is enrolled in the nursing program at D-I Merrimack and made the Dean’s List her first semester. “It’s pretty intense,” she texted. “The routine starts with early morning lifts, to practice, to labs to studying for the nursing clinicals.”
During the fall season she pitched and played first base, a position she said “is definitely something I want to learn.”
At Greenfield she helped the Wave win two state titles and four WMass championships, and in five seasons tossed 11 no hitters, threw one perfect game, had 18 one-hitters and fanned 1,137 batters.
Her first taste of collegiate competition happened last fall during a softball gala. “We played UMass-Amherst, BU, URI, Harvard, Stonehill to name a few. Our whole pitching staff got innings. I had our side’s only no-hit shutout inning against BU and two no-hit innings against Stonehill and gave up just one hit against UMass.”
The Warriors play in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), and though they’ve appeared in seven NCAA tournaments since 2000 their last winning season was 2019 when they were 25-23.
“Coach Elaine Schwager retired after the fall season and we now have Coach Jill Gagnon who I got to know during the recruiting process.”
Merrimack opens the season on Thursday at the UNLV Rebel Classic in Las Vegas, and their first homestand is March 11 against Maine.
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Super Dud: While the Patriots were pulling an el-foldo in California I was watching Annie Hall starring Woody Allen and Diane Keaton.
More ads, more fluff, a singer who performed the national anthem like he was auditioning for Phantom of the Opera … The game started 12 minutes late and in the words of Chris Russo, “It was a colossal bore.”
“I paid no attention to Bugs Bunny at the half,” Russo added. “None. Zero. Bad Bunny, Bugs Bunny, Lousy Bunny, Good Bunny, Playboy Bunny, I couldn’t deal with it, the NFL and their constant effort to globalize.”
One caller to Russo’s show compared it to taking an Ambien. The Boston Sports Journal’s Greg Bedard called it “a complete ass kicking in all three phases.”
Baseball’s here and not a second too soon.
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SQUIBBERS: There are two huge hoops games at the Mullins Center the next four days. Today at 1 p.m. the UMass women’s team (9-2; 17-5) hosts Miami-Ohio (11-0; 20-4), and on Tuesday at 7 p.m. the UMass men (15-10; 6-6) host the undefeated RedHawk’s men’s team (24-0; 13-0). If those games don’t draw, marketing needs to ditch the emails and find another strategy. … Greenfield native Doug Cassidy and teammates Cody Perkins and Katie Knipe represented the U.S. at the International Snow Sculpting Competition in Japan last week. “We did not make it to the podium,” said Cassidy, “but we did make a lot of friends from all over the world. What a great adventure it was.” … Utah goaltender Karel Vejmelka stands between Michael Hrabal starting between the pipes for the Utah Mammoth next season. Vejmelka is second in saves (1,020) but 31st in save percentage (.903). … Hall of Fame quarterback Sonny Jurgensen who died last week at age 91 loved the nightlife, telling one reporter, “When I left Philadelphia the bartenders all wore black armbands.” … At the Olympics, curling captured what late sportscaster Jim McKay called the thrill of victory when Duluth’s Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin knocked off the defending mixed doubles champions on Monday. … Speed skater Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands arrived at the Olympics by private jet. “Her behavior is like that of a diva,” said Dutch sports reporterJohan Derksen. “If I were her coach I wouldn’t tolerate that.” … There’s little doubt that the U.S. and Sweden will battle for the gold in women’s hockey. Both teams were undefeated going into the quarterfinals, the U.S. had outscored its opponents, 20-1 and Sweden by 18-2. … The Super Bowl pregame show included a segment by Peter King who traveled to Williams College to interview Luke Mangini, the son of former Jets coach Eric Mangini. “It’s pure,” Mangini said of D-III football. “It reminds you of how special the game is.” … Columbus Bluejackets defenseman Zach Werenski left the U.S. early in order to march with the Americans in the opening ceremony. A Michigan native, Werenski said he was inspired by the Netflix documentary about the 1980 Olympic team that beat the Soviets. … In the wake of Gavin McKenna’s pugilistic skill defending his mother’s honor, Spittin’ Chiclets’ host Paul Bissonnette is marketing a fishing lure called the “Right Hook.” … The Rams and 49ers will play in Australia next season. Melbourne is 16 hours ahead of us, meaning a Sunday kickoff at 8 p.m. our time will be a noontime kickoff over there on a Monday. … The Vikings may try to reacquire Kirk Cousins in the wake of JJ McCarthy using a third-person “Nine” alter ego. “The Vikings are stuck with him,” said Kris Carter. “There’s no legitimate Plan B.” … New Red Sox third baseman Caleb Durbin was Yankees property till they traded him to the Brewers with Nestor Cortes for reliever Devin Williams. Durbin led the NL in HBPs last season with 54. … It was a long wait for the payback, but somewhere Sunday night Jerod Mayo was raising a mug and toasting the Seahawks.