SOUTH DEERFIELD — When Frontier Regional senior pitcher Noah Barnes needed a little run support Monday afternoon at G.T. Valiton Field, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
The right-hander had already pitched five of the seven innings he would eventually toss in his four-hit shutout, but in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Red Hawks offense still had not scored a run against Mohawk Trail pitcher Gabe Seaver.
Barnes, who hits ninth in the batting order, proved to be the catalyst for the first runs of the game as he legged out a bunt single to lead off a three-run fifth inning as the third-seeded Hawks went on to defeat sixth-seeded Mohawk, 5-0, in the Western Massachusetts Division 3 Baseball Tournament quarterfinals.
Frontier (16-3) will face No. 10 Hoosac Valley (14-8) in the semifinals at 4 p.m. Wednesday at UMass’ Earl Lorden Field.
Hoosac Valley defeated No. 2 Southwick, 2-1, on Monday.
Frontier’s game was scoreless before Barnes legged out his bunt and moved to second base on an overthrow. That was the first of four errors in the frame, all helping Frontier (16-3) score three times.
Nolan Muzyka followed by lining a single to right field to score Barnes with the first run. Muzyka moved to second when the throw home sailed over Mohawk catcher Julian Diamond’s head.
Muzyka moved to third on an Evan Bourque sacrifice bunt, and Seth Gewanter followed by hitting a grounder to short. Muzyka left for home on contact and scored when the throw home bounced for another error. Brandon Bryant singled to move Gewanter to third, and Kyle Spencer hit another grounder to short, and again the throw home was off line, allowing Gewanter to score.
“You can’t win ballgames with seven errors,” Mohawk coach Bill Buck said. “Gabe did everything we asked of him. He threw all off-speed stuff, and he was throwing his curveball for strikes, his fastball for strikes. Frontier is a good fastball-hitting team, and Gabe pitched great against them.”
Frontier scored twice more in the sixth, benefiting from a pair of errors that put two runners on for Muzyka, who roped the first and only extra-base hit of the day, a double to left-center to drive in both runs.
All of that came in support of Barnes, who made the most of his shot at redemption after suffering the loss to Mohawk last season in the first round.
“The last two years we’ve been out in the first round, and last year it was to these guys, and they hit a walk-off off me,” Barnes said. “I asked (coach Chris Williams) for the ball and he gave it to me.”
Barnes was sharp from the start, setting the Warriors (15-7) down in order in each of the first two innings. He ran into a bit of trouble in the third, when a pair of hits put Mohawk runners on second and third with one out. But a shallow fly ball to left and a strikeout got Barnes out of the inning unscathed.
He had one other difficult inning in the top of the fifth, when an error, single and walk allowed Mohawk to load the bases, but Barnes got a groundout to third base to escape a jam.
“There was no more pressure today than any other start because I treat every start like it’s Game 7 of the World Series,” Barnes said. “I didn’t really feel any extra pressure, especially after the first couple of innings, when I felt like I really settled in.”
Barnes struck out six and walked one to pick up the victory. He was also helped out by a strong defensive effort behind him.
Leading the defense was Frontier shortstop Seth Gewanter, who had six assists to first base — including three in the sixth — and also snared a line drive and caught a pop up.
“I love playing behind Noah because there is always a ton of action, a ton of ground balls,” Gewanter said. “His ball has a little sink to it at the end and we always get a lot of ground balls. We focus on our defense a lot and it has really helped us out.”
Seaver struck out four and allowing nine hits and one walk over six innings. Diamond, Levin DuPree, Chris Graves and Colton Yezierski each had one hit in the loss.