Summer baseball: Jackson Ayres steals home to lift Northampton Sandy Koufax past Frontier

Jackson Ayres stole home to lift the Northampton Sandy Koufax baseball team to its first win of the season, Saturday in Pioneer Valley Youth Baseball League action.

Northampton scored two runs in the seventh to beat Frontier, 4-3, at Herlihy Park in Whately.

Northampton rallied with two outs. Liam Flynn walked then moved to second on a wild pitch. Ayres then walked and both players advanced on a double steal.

Flynn scored the tying run on a wild pitch, which moved Ayres to third. On the second pitch of the next at-bat, Ayres broke for home and beat the tag following a throw in the dirt.

Northampton pulled within 3-2 with a run in the sixth. Peter Sullivan reached first on an error, stole second then scored on a single by Trey Rios.

Hamp (1-1) took a 1-0 lead in the second when Rios singled, stole second and third, then scored on a wild pitch.

Frontier tied the game with a run in the third, then took a 3-1 lead in the fourth.

In the third, Owen Babb singled, stole second and third, and scored on a single by Gabe Solodky.

Grayson Loos’ two-run single in the fourth scored Kyle Begos (walk) and Dylan Camp (walk).

Aidan Heffernan had a hit for Frontier.

Northampton pitcher Cayden Payne entered in the sixth and struck out five over the final two innings to earn the win.

Hatfield 7, Brattleboro 0 — Griffin Smiarowski struck out 10 and allowed two hits over six innings for Hatfield (1-1), Saturday in a PVYBL Mickey Mantle game at Smith Academy.

Michael Bassett struck out one and allowed one hit to finish the shutout.

Bassett (run) had two hits, while Smiarowski (hit) scored three runs and had an RBI. Will Dobson (run) and Shane Prusak each had one hit and one RBI.

Frontier 4, Northampton 1 — Ben Martino had two hits and an RBI, and Tyler Baranoski picked up the win with four strikeouts to lift Frontier in a PVYBL Mickey Mantle contest, Saturday night at Herlihy Park.

Ben Zaranek and Maxwell Edwards each drove in a run for Frontier, while Ethan Russell added a sacrifice fly to plate another run. Kyle Barnes struck out two batters to earn the save in relief of Baranoski, and the defense behind them did the job with just one error.