H.S. Roundup: South Hadley baseball trounces Amherst in 2026 opener

SOUTH HADLEY — The South Hadley baseball team started the new season off hot, defeating Amherst in a 13-2 victory in five innings on Friday night.

Patience at the plate was where the Tigers found success in the win, putting together solid at-bats to start the year. The Hurricanes helped the cause on the mound, struggling to consistently find the zone, especially early on.

South Hadley’s first two batters of the game reached by a hit by pitch, followed by multiple walks and wild pitches. The Tigers put up three runs in the opening frame, none of which required a ball to be put in play.

“Sometimes, in baseball, your first game, you just want to go out there and get hits and swing,” South Hadley head coach Matt Foley said. “I thought that we had a couple of really disciplined at-bats where pitches were pretty close, and they worked walks.”

The third and fourth innings were where the Tigers really found their groove offensively, tallying five runs in each frame. Finishing the four total innings of offense on the night with 10 walks and seven hits, South Hadley did well to consistently keep runners on the basepaths.

Logan Carpenter led the Tigers with three RBIs in the win, finishing 2-for-2 with a walk and two runs scored as well. Noah Carillon and Lincoln Belsky each had two RBIs of their own in the victory, proving the the heart of the South Hadley lineup is ready to go to begin the year.

“It took them a couple of innings; I think they were putting a little too much pressure on themselves,” Foley said. “But then we just started playing baseball.”

In the top of the second, the Hurricanes answered back, capitalizing on a pair of errors in the field. A Nick Stinson sacrifice fly to left field gave the team its first run of the game, following it up with a zero posted in the field in the bottom of the inning.

Amherst continued its momentum shift in the top of the third, finding itself with the bases loaded and one out. Cyrus Arwade drove in one run, with the Tigers working themselves out of the jam quickly after.

“I know we didn’t score a ton of runs, but we got a lot of base runners on to put pressure on [South Hadley] defensively,” Hurricanes head coach Jordan McCarthy said. “Happy with the bats that we had [on Friday].”

Matthew Butler got the start for the Tigers on the bump for the opener, tossing four innings and allowing just one earned run with three strikeouts.

With the win, South Hadley looks to continue the positive momentum over the course of its four-game homestand to begin the year. The Tigers’ next matchup is against Mount Everett on Monday, March 30, at 4 p.m.

Amherst will look to put the season-opening loss behind itself, looking ahead to Monson, which it’ll play on Monday, March 30, at 4 p.m. on the road.

“I think you can learn as much in a loss as in a win,” McCarthy said. “Especially for a team as young as ours, that is a good thing to just get their expectations where we need them to be, to be in a willing-to-learn environment.”

Softball

Northampton 10, Easthampton 3 — Greta Lepore starred for the Blue Devils in the circle, striking out 14 Eagles batters in their season-opening victory.

Lepore gave up just four hits and three runs in seven innings of work.

Jayda Alejandro (2-for-3, three RBIs) powered Northampton on offense.

Easthampton’s starter Summer Routhier struck out nine while Madison Urban (2-for-3, RBI) had the hot bat for the Eagles.

Hopkins 16, Minnechaug 7 — The Golden Hawks scored 11 runs in innings five and six to blow past the Falcons at home in their season opener.

Hopkins led, 4-2, after four innings then scored 12 of the game’s final 17 total runs to begin the season 1-0.

Girls lacrosse

South Hadley 10, Hampshire 6 — Kelcey Zraunig netted four goals for the Tigers in their victory over the Raiders.

Ella Haber (two goals), Willa Camp (goal, two assists) and Lauren Montemagni (goal, assist) contributed multiple points for South Hadley.

Tigers goalie Dee Haber made five saves.

Riley Simmons and Reese O’Connell each tallied two goals for Hampshire.