BELCHERTOWN — For the Belchertown golf team, all its work has led to this one moment.
On Monday, junior Ryan Chrabascz will look to defend his individual title in the Division 2 Western Massachusetts Championship at Crestview Country Club in Agawam, alongside teammates Frankie Murray, Justin Bourque, Aidan Dupont, Jonathan Bechta and David Fredenburgh.
For coach David Wright, the expectations for Chrabascz and Murray, his two top golfers, are high.
“I think both of them have a good shot to win,” said Wright. “I think they’re a little more experienced, they have a little more confidence. Going into last year, I had confidence in them competing for a spot in states, and I don’t think they did, and then when they realized they did have it in them and they made it here… I think they expected to make it back.”
Both golfers are averaging rounds just over 40 on the season, with Chrabascz coming off a 37 against South Hadley on Wednesday at The Ledges, finishing second behind Bourque’s career-best 34.
“I think we’ve progressed pretty nicely,” said Chrabascz. “After the summer, we were all a little rusty but as the year went on we had more practices and became more comfortable playing.”
Chrabascz and Murray felt the Orioles are hitting their stride at the right time, having won four of their last five matches. They agreed with their coach that the team was in a good place to take home some hardware at Western Mass., a tournament both are familiar with.
“I’ve made it to Western Mass. three of my four years as a golfer and I’ve just been having a fun time,” said Murray, who recounted how much he’s enjoyed his experience as a part of the team.
As a sophomore, Chrabascz took the individual title at last year’s championship, shooting a 6-over 75 to beat out Pope Francis (then Cathedral) High School’s Joe Brosseau and Billy Marchand by two strokes, something he referred to as his “career highlight” as he heads into his third career appearance at the tournament.
While Chrabascz won the individual title, the Orioles finished second as a team to Pope Francis, trailing the Cardinals by nine strokes. This year, Chrabascz and Murray feel the team has a solid chance to take home the team title as well.
“If (Murray and I) both play the best we can, we definitely have a shot at winning,” said Chrabascz. “If we play the best we can, we can win, but we should do fine regardless of that.”
As for Wright, he had the team work on their drives and short game, study the course at Creatview, one which the Orioles have yet to play this season and develop a game plan for each player to tackle the challenge ahead.
Some things will be different for the Orioles, as they will be playing the standard 18 holes instead of the usual nine during the regular season. They will also be facing Division 2 competition for only the fourth time this year. They faced Division 1 teams the rest of the year, something Wright felt neither gave them an advantage nor disadvantage.
As for the players, though, there’s only one thing on their mind.
“Hopefully we can bring home the title to B-Town,” said Murray.
Amherst Regional qualified for the postseason for the first time since 2013 with a 9-8 record in match play.
The Hurricanes will play The Ranch in Southwick with a 10 a.m. shotgun start.
They won their final match of the regular season against Easthampton but had lost four in a row before that. They won five of six matches from Sept. 30 to Oct. 13 to push back into playoff contention.
Four players have led Amherst in scoring during the last month.
Alex Cantor and Anna Casagrande have consistently topped the Amherst leaderboard this year.
Casagrande’s low round was a 37 against West Springfield, while Cantor shot a 34 against Chicopee Comp.
Matt Stromski contributed to this report.