SOUTH DEERFIELD — Frontier baseball coach Chris Williams was excited to see his team at the plate this season and the Redhawks showed why in their season opener on Monday.
Taking on Wahconah, Frontier came out swinging early and put up runs in the first two innings of action. The Redhawks finished the game with 13 hits, opening up an 8-0 lead after four innings of play.
The Warriors got the bats going late but the Frontier lead stood strong, with the Redhawks coming away with an 11-5 victory.
“It was awesome to host Wahconah, I was pumped they were able to come down here and play us,” Williams said. “Those Berkshire teams are as good as it gets. To start our season with a big win like that is huge for us.”
Everyone got in on the action at the plate for Frontier, with each of the nine Redhawk starters tallying a hit. Tyler Dubreuil led the way with three hits at the plate while Kevin Baumann, Liam Skribiski-Banack, Aiden Drury and Alex Gochinski all having two hit performances in the victory.
“The same guys who have been coming up big, Baumann, Liam Skribiski-Banack, Dubreuil, they all had awesome games today,” Williams said. “The exciting thing is 1-through-9, people are putting the ball in play. We have athletes, we’re taking extra bases, we’re stealing bases, all that good stuff. We’re just trying to manufacture runs and come up with hits. It was nice to see that gravy train rolling today.”
While Frontier was putting the bat on the ball, Tyler Baranowski was dealing on the hill.
The senior didn’t allow a hit through five innings, striking out nine along the way. He was pulled after five innings to assure he would be able to pitch later in the week.
“The pitch count rule is a mockery,” Williams said. “He had a no hitter after five innings and I had to pull him out. That kid is going to finish his job at 90 pitches but then he can’t throw on Friday. So I have to pull a kids dream out of his hands so he can throw twice in one week. Tyler did exactly what we knew he was going to do. He was pounding the zone, he got himself out of trouble in the first inning with those strikeouts. It’s what we’re looking for him to do all year so it was a nice start for him.”
Baumann and Skribiski-Banack each singled with two outs in the first inning and ended up scoring off a Wahconah error after Baranowski put the ball in play, giving the Redhawks a 2-0 lead after one.
Dylan Martin opened the second inning with a hit, stole second and scored from there off a single from Dubreuil. Dubreuil then stole second and third and was brought home off a hit by Baumann to put Frontier ahead 4-0 going into the third.
“Against a team like them, a really good Berkshire team, getting a lead was huge,” Baumann said. “It got everyone fired up and we rode that momentum the rest of the game.”
That score held until the bottom of the fourth, where the Redhawks tallied four runs to take an 8-0 lead. Dubreuil got on with a single, Sam Schreiber walked and after a pair of steals, Dubreuil scored off a Baumann ground out.
Skribiski-Banack singled to score Schreiber, Drury hit safely to bring Skribiski-Banack in and Gochinski drilled a single that scored Drury to give Frontier a comfortable lead going into the fifth.
Schreiber replaced Baranowski on the mound and the Warriors scored two runs in the sixth to cut the lead to 8-2. The Redhawks answered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth, with a Baranowski bunt scoring Skribiski-Banack, a Gochinski groundout bringing Drury home and Shane Prusak singling to score Baranowski and put Frontier ahead, 11-2, going into the seventh.
“With the couple scrimmages we had, we were hitting the ball nice,” Baumann said. “We’re a strong offensive team and I knew the boys were going to bring the bats today and they did.”
Wahconah scored three runs in the seventh but Schreiber got two big out late to seal the win.