HADLEY — A seven-inning no-hitter from Chace Earle led the No. 3 Hopkins Academy baseball team to a 4-1 victory over No. 6 Maynard in the MIAA Division 5 Round of 8 on Sunday afternoon.
Earle was dominant in seven innings of work in the win, with a pair of walks and errors creating a little bit of trouble in the third and seventh innings, but the senior was lights out in the other five frames, setting down the Tigers in order and picking up 10 strikeouts along the way.
“All of my stuff was working [on Sunday],” Earle said. “I was able to throw my fastball in the zone to get up in counts… I do have confidence in myself, but [Maynard’s] a good hitting team. I was expecting to give up some hits, but any no-hitter is great.”
“I think [Earle] felt invincible out there,” Golden Hawks head coach Daniel Vreeland said. ”He felt like they couldn’t touch him. And the couple of times they did, his defense for the most part picked him up… But yeah, the way he was pitching [on Sunday], I wouldn’t take anybody over [Earle].”
A big reason for Earle’s choice to attack hitters all game long came from his team generating early run support offensively. For the second game in a row, Hopkins put two balls over the fence in the first inning of play.
Matthew Vassallo came up as the second batter of the day for the Golden Hawks after an Aiden Keeling-Lococo single, looking to quickly get his team on the board. The senior took a liking to the second pitch he saw, blasting it to the opposite field, and depositing it over the right field wall for an early 2-0 lead.
“[Maynard’s pitcher] gave me a high fastball, and then he tunneled the same exact pitch, so I just jumped all over it,” Vassallo said.
Hopkins wasn’t done there, with Carter Styspeck stepping into the box two batters later with two outs and no one on. Just like Vassallo, Styspeck took strike one before giving the second pitch of the at-bat a ride deep over the wall in center field for a 3-0 lead in the first inning.
Having runs on the board early helped the Golden Hawks to settle in to the Round of 8 matchup, while also putting the Tigers in a hole before even getting their fourth hitter up to the plate.
“My guys are a team that likes to jump out early,” Vreeland said. “Back-to-back first innings with two homers is a [great] place to be. But yeah, the game plan was just, see your pitch, get your pitch, and you try to put up a number.”
Despite the bats cooling off after the first-inning power explosion, Hopkins’ bottom of the order used some small-ball to help add some insurance in the fifth inning.
Harry West led off with a walk to start the inning, with Wyatt Cook laying down a textbook bunt to move him over to second base. With the runner in scoring position, Keeling-Lococo tallied his second hit of the day, smacking a line drive to right field for an RBI double.
“That’s sort of the beauty of the team being just a bunch of guys who are really baseball-minded,” Vreeland said. “When I asked [Cook] to bunt to get the guy in scoring position, he didn’t bat an eyelash… Everybody here is willing to do the thing we need for the next step, and that’s the sign of a good team.”
The combination of great pitching, defense and offense has made the Golden Hawks a tough team to beat this season, but moving forward in the state tournament, their matchups are set to become even tougher.
Sunday’s win moves Hopkins on to the semifinal round, with No. 2 Georgetown up next on the schedule. After being bounced from the state tournament in 2023 by the Royals, the Golden Hawks will look for redemption.
“This team, we haven’t been to a Final Four yet,” Earle said. “… We’ve been playing together our whole lives, and it’s just amazing that we get to do this together.”
