WESTHAMPTON — Madison Philbrook fought off inside pitch after inside pitch.
Agawam pitcher Allison Wheeler kept throwing them to the Hampshire Regional junior, who continued to slap neon green ball after neon green ball to the left of the third baseline at Hampshire Regional.
Some carried out onto the adjacent track.
One nearly collided with Raiders coach Brian McGan in the third-base coaches’ box.
He didn’t flinch behind mirrored sunglasses, keeping his arms crossed and gum working.
On the 10th pitch of the at-bat, Philbrook finally put the ball in play.
It sailed over the left-field fence for Philbrook’s second home run of the season in the bottom of the second inning, the only hit in a 1-0 Raiders victory.
“I’ve been working for a while on getting behind the inside pitch and really driving it. She kept going inside, so I kept going with it,” Philbrook said.
She knew it was gone off the bat, but ran hard until it landed on the other side of the fence.
An error in judgment during a similar situation in Hampshire’s previous game gave Philbrook enough pause to need to be sure.
“In the last game I hit one that was a foot shy of the fence, and that one I kind of thought it was gone, so I was taking my time and it wasn’t gone, so I tried to run,” she said. “This time I went for it even though I knew it was gone.”
Hampshire (5-0) didn’t have any other baserunners against the defending Division 1 Western Massachusetts champion Brownies.
The defending state Division 2 champions didn’t need it with the way senior Alexis Ferris pitched.
She struck out 14 in her third no-hitter of the season.
“We were just trying to be aggressive. She has a lot of pitches. We were trying to not let too many go by to get in a hole,” Agawam coach Kathy Georgina said. “Then she’d start playing around throwing her different pitches. We knew we weren’t going to score a lot against her.”
Wheeler walked in the top of the fourth inning to deny Ferris a perfect game.
She was stranded at third after Ferris struck out the side to end any notion of a threat.
“Alexis pitched a fantastic game. She moved the ball in and out, up, down,” McGan said. “It kept them leaning different ways. You could see them guessing a little bit which way it would go.”
Only seven batters put the ball in play against Ferris.
The Raiders’ fielders occasionally had to remind themselves of their jobs in the dull moments.
“There was one point where I was kind of like, ‘oh wait, the game’s still going on,’” Philbrook said. “We still have her back all the time, though.”
How close the game remained, despite Ferris’ dominance, kept the Raiders on their toes.
McGan told his players “we’re going to need more runs” between most innings when Hampshire came off the field.
“I know that team. It’s one of the best teams in western Mass.,” he said. “I know the kids on that team. I know how they play. They’re gamers, so they’re going to try and come after it as much as they can. I knew one wasn’t going to be enough. Fortunately it was.”
Agawam (3-2) sent Wheeler to the plate in the top of the seventh trying to extend the game.
She struck out, then Rachel Lapponese was thrown out at first after attempting a bunt.
Britney Perkett hit Agawam’s hardest ball of the day with two outs in the seventh, but Hampshire third baseman Danielle McGan snatched it out of midair standing on third base to end the game.
“I think this game could have kept going and going and going if not for that one hit,” Georgina said.
Instead, the game lasted 1 hour, eight minutes and featured two total baserunners and 17 strikeouts.
The Raiders won their 12th consecutive game dating back to last season.
“I think we’re definitely at a good point of the season, especially with some of the teams we’ve played,” Philbrook said. “We’ve played most of the good teams in our schedule so far, and we’ve done pretty good against all of them.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com.