HADLEY – The Hopkins Academy baseball team has hit the field for the 2025 season and head coach Dan Vreeland is cautiously optimistic in this year’s edition of the Golden Hawks.
“It’s a season where, if everything develops the way I’m kind of hoping things develop, we should be really competitive against some really good teams,” Vreeland said. “But it’s important for us all to take those steps forward so that we can be as good as we can be.”
Hopkins went 13-10 a year ago and lost to Georgetown during the Round of 8 of the MIAA Division 5 state tournament.
The Hawks lost some impact players to graduation, including Liam Flynn and Beau Elson, but junior Chace Earle and Amherst transfer Matthew Vassallo both figure to be key pieces on this year’s group.
Earle is one of Hopkins’ top arms in its pitching rotation, plus its best hitter. According to Vreeland, Earle began the season 32 hits away from reaching 100 career hits.
“He’s been starting at shortstop since he was in eighth grade,” Vreeland said. “Phenomenal defender, really stepped up as being a pitcher and a team leader.
“Electric fastball,” Vreeland added. “He mixes his speeds well, he’s a junior with a really good repertoire.”
Vassallo will be impactful at the plate. The newcomer showed off his power with two doubles in the Hawks’ 11-1 season-opening victory against Palmer on March 28.
“He’s got tons of power, plays really good defensively,” Vreeland said. “He plays shortstop, third base, catcher, I could stick him in the field if I really wanted to. I think he used to pitch for Amherst, occasionally. He’s a kid who does everything and just an absolute workforce.”
The Hawks also expect to get regular contributions from pitcher/outfielder Tucker Russell and middle infielder Nate Rickles.
Vreeland — who recently kicked off his 10th season as Hopkins’ skipper — noted that while a good portion of his team is made up on non-seniors, he’s confident his team will take the right steps necessary to be a tough out come playoffs.
“We’re young and I think we’re hungry and we’re developing,” Vreeland said. “We’ve had a couple of rough bumps at the early part of the season, but I think the kids were eager to learn, eager to work and we’re seeing that growth happening all the time. So I think a big thing for us is just making sure [we’re] taking the steps forward when we need to, because it’s hard with a young team. They make mistakes, they have their pitfalls, but they’re working really hard.”
The Hawks were shut out in their most recent home game to Frontier, 5-0, on April 2, but that didn’t deter Vreeland’s confidence level regarding the potential his team possesses.
“In terms of our strength, I think we hit pretty darn well,” Vreeland said. “We got a lot of young pitching that could really surprise a lot of people [too].”
The Orioles bring back a bulk of the roster that advanced to the Round of 16 during last spring’s Division 3 state tournament and expectations are high once again in 2025.
“We’re experienced, we return nine seniors,” fifth-year Belchertown head coach Evan Berneche said. “Then we got a transfer from Amherst who moved into town, Thatcher Rudnik, which is rare. He was already friends with a bunch of the guys. Then there’s six juniors on varsity right now and two sophomores that practice with us. We really only had to fill in two spots.”
Leading the way for the Orioles this season will be Ian McDonald and Josh Misiaszek, both seniors. McDonald managed 25 hits as a junior a year ago, while Misiaszek entered the season needing two strikeouts on the bump to reach the century-mark for his career.
Misiaszek suffered an injury in 2024 that caused the third baseman/pitcher to miss 11 games. Berneche credited Jake Waller (second baseman) and Evan Ferguson (first baseman) for stepping up for Belchertown during its playoff run while Misiaszek was out of the lineup. Berneche also revealed Ryan Gould will likely be the only starter among juniors and he expects him to be a reliable arm on the mound.
“The expectation is high because the experience is high,” Berneche said. “But again, it’s going to come down to, do they execute in the time? We practice all these things every day. We focus on base running, we focus on situational hitting, we focus on putting the ball in play when we bunt. It’s only going to come down to, can they execute it, so that’s why we try to do it every day.”
The Orioles opened their season April 4 against Minnechaug, and the home opener is April 10 against Tantasqua.
Frontier: It’ll be a new-look Redhawk team this spring, as the club lost seven players from last year’s squad that reached the Div. 4 Round of 32. Kaden James returns behind the plate, Austin D’Urso is a player head coach Chris Williams said put in a lot of work in the offseason, Max Skribiski-Banack is an experienced arm at the top of the rotation, Joey Hutkoski is a sophomore who will see time on the mound while Ben Caron, Brady Poreda, Collin West and Poter Hall round out the seniors who Williams is expecting big seasons from.
“I’m looking forward to seeing some of these seniors step up,” Frontier coach Chris Williams said. “Collin West, Porter Hall, Max, Kaden, Ben Caron… I’m confident in them. A lot of these guys have something to prove. We have young guys, we have some older guys. It’s dog eat dog to make the starting lineup, for sure.”
Amherst: The ‘Canes have an abundance of youth throughout their roster this season as 13 of Amherst’s 18 players are underclassmen. Head coach Jeff Gladu begins his sixth season with the Hurricanes and will look to guide them back to a .500 winning-percentage or better after going 7-12 last spring. Senior Nate Ziomek (3B, OF, P) will be tasked with leading Amherst this season.
Granby: Seniors Brennan Dwyer (OF/ 1B), Gavin Kennedy (C), Jack Crawford (OF), Gavin Moreno (Utility/ P) and Jaedyn Pike (OF) will look to bring the Rams back to its winning ways from when they were freshmen in 2022. Granby went 17-6 that season, but the program hasn’t won more than nine games since then. Longtime head coach Jim Woods enters his 22nd season looking to bounce back from a 4-14 record a season ago.
South Hadley: Another seasoned head coach in Matt Foley (29th season) will rely on his eight-player junior class to help the Tigers build off a successful 2024 season in which they went 16-5. Justin Moskal (P), Logan Carpenter and Jackson Keller are players to watch for South Hadley, which lost in the Round of 32 to Lynnfield last June.
Smith Voc: The Vikings have averaged 16.7 wins over the prior three seasons and look to continue racking up the Ws this spring. Eighth-year head coach Luis Bonilla will trot out senior James Lavalle as his ace, who needed 35 strikeouts to reach 200 on his career at the start of the year. The reigning Tri-County North co-champions also boast Pat Millin and Jared Baer.
Smith Academy: The Falcons have seemingly nowhere to go but up after winning just one game in 2024. Head coach Jacob Butler will lean on Jake Wilcox, Garrett Willard and Harrison LaFlamme to right the ship for Smith.
Northampton: The Blue Devils will look to rebound in the Valley East Division after going 2-17 overall last season. The squad opened 2025 with a tight 7-6 loss to Chicopee.
Holyoke: The Purple Knights only won three games in 2024, however, two came during the final four games. Perhaps Holyoke can carry over some of that momentum a year later.
Gateway: Sophomore pitcher Jacob Maynard returns for the Gators after bursting onto the high school scene with 50 strikeouts as a freshman.
Hampshire: The Raiders won 13 games last spring, but lost nearly it entire rotation. Phil Morin returns as Hampshire’s biggest threat in the box.
Easthampton: The Eagles will look to snag five or more wins for the first time since 2022 this season.
