HADLEY — The Frontier Regional baseball team recovered from a slow start to beat Jon Morrison and Hopkins Academy, 6-3, and win the Hampshire West League title, Wednesday.
The Red Hawks found themselves in a similar hole from the last time they faced Morrison, exactly two weeks ago. On May 9, Morrison no-hit Frontier and on Wednesday, the right-hander was perfect through three innings.
”Coming into today the message was ‘we can’t do any worse than we did last time,” Frontier coach Chris Williams said. “Last time he no-hit us, so we figured we could only go up from here.”
Frontier found a way to produce runs against the Golden Hawks ace in the fourth inning. Trailing 3-0, Dylan Apanell (1-for-3, two RBIs) capped a streak of three straight hits with two outs with a two-run single.
“When we got down early the guys never quit,” Williams said.
The offense didn’t stop there for the Red Hawks. A four-run sixth inning saw hits from Matt Hildreth, Kiernan Freeman and Connor Waitkus (2-for-3, two RBIs, two runs). Waitkus gave Frontier a 5-3 lead with a two-run triple to the left field fence. Waitkus made it 6-3 when he scored on a wild pitch.
“We worked hard in practice, we prepared for (Morrison) well, and it paid off,” Williams said.
The Golden Hawks had good balance to start the game. Morrison had eight strikeouts in the first three innings, while the three runs came thanks to John Earle (2-for-4).
Earle scored the lone run in the first inning, and hit a two-run home run in the second inning. However, Frontier starter Matt Hildreth settled down and kept Hopkins off the board.
“They did what they were supposed to do, and our hits didn’t find holes later in the game,” Hopkins coach Dan Vreeland said.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Golden Hawks (11-4, 7-2 Hampshire West) loaded the bases with one out and forced Williams to take out Hildreth, who struck out five over 6⅓ innings.
Williams handed the ball to Waitkus, who induced a game-ending double play to earn the save.
The league championship was the first for the Red Hawks (17-1, 9-1) since 2012.
“This is one we’re gonna enjoy,” Williams said. “Now it’s on to the next goal. We got our league championship and now we’re looking to make a run at the regional tournament.”