GREENFIELD — A pair of teams with state title aspirations met at Vets Field on Wednesday.
Hampshire Regional made the trip to Greenfield for its final regular season game of the season and going into the fifth inning, the Green Wave appeared to be in position to hand the Raiders just their second loss of the season, holding a 2-0 lead.
Raegan Dubay had other ideas.
Caroline Payson opened the inning with a single, Rachael Hickox reached on an error before Teagan Charles beat out an infield single to score Payson and put Hampshire on the board. With two runners on, Dubay came up and smashed a home run over the left field fence to give the Raiders the lead.
Hampshire kept Greenfield off the scoreboard the rest of the way to pull out a 4-2 independent victory.
“I say all the time if you can keep it within reach you have a chance,” Raiders coach Brian McGan said. “We kept it within two [runs] and one swing of the bat was able to get us back in the game.”
The loss snapped a three-game win streak for Greenfield (11-5), though coach Ray Dodge said he was proud of the fight his team showed.
“It was a good game,” Dodge said. “They’re always a battle [with Hampshire]. We tried to battle as hard as we could and I thought we did that tonight. We played well but sometimes you play well and don’t win.”
McGan was complimentary of Green Wave pitcher MacKenzie Paulin — who recorded her 1,000th strikeout on Tuesday — saying she is one of the best pitchers his team has gone against during his long tenure leading the Raiders.
Getting to face a pitcher of Paulin’s caliber is something he hopes will help Hampshire (17-1) in the postseason.
“You always want to see pitchers like that before the postseason,” McGan said. “She battled hard. We just caught her in a couple right pitches. Sometimes you get that. We have good hitters and they have a very good pitcher. I give her a lot of credit. I’ve been here a long time and she’s one of the better pitchers I’ve seen since being here.”
The Greenfield defense came up big in the third inning. The Raiders put two on to open the inning but Grace Laurie caught a bunt and threw to first to get the runner for a double play. With Hickox still on second, CC Thayer drilled a single to left field but Bianca Reynolds rocketed a throw home that beat Hickox, keeping the game scoreless.
The Green Wave scored twice in the bottom of the frame. Anna Bucala got it going with a double, Paulin was intentionally walked before Gloria McDonald bashed a single up the middle to score Bucala.
Paulin later scored on a wild pitch to give Greenfield its 2-0 lead. The Green Wave put runners on in the fifth and sixth but were unable to tally another run.
Payson recorded two hits, Hickox singled, Mariah Pacinella added a base hit while Ryanne Dubay doubled and added 10 strikeouts and surrendered six hits in the circle for Hampshire.
Charles singled in the seventh for the Raiders, the 100th hit of her career.