SOUTH DEERFIELD – With two runners on base and the sun quickly making its way toward the horizon line, Frontier’s Delaney Fifield was antsy going up to the plate.
“I was kind of stressing out, I’m not gonna lie. I was loose, ready,” Fifeld said.
Fifeld didn’t let her nerves show, putting the icing on the cake of a 24-10 win over Hopkins Academy with a three-run, walk-off homer in the bottom of the sixth inning on Tuesday evening. Fifeld finished the game with a team-high six RBIs and three hits, scoring two of the Redhawks’ 24 runs.
Ashley Taylor secured the win on the mound for Frontier, throwing 4.1 innings and striking out three batters. Skyler Steele went 3-for-4 at the plate, Taylor picked up four RBIs on two hits, and Chloe Cutting was solid as a pinch runner, scoring three runs and picking up a hit to boot.
For Hopkins, Laynie Bailey and Taylor Barry both finished with two RBIs apiece; Barry, Anna Dyjach, and Lily Elia led their team with two hits each.
Frontier relief pitcher Olivia Machon took over for Taylor in the fifth and threw 1.2 innings in her varsity debut, allowing no walks and striking out two batters.
“She’s missed a few days in a row… so she’s been out and then this is her first day back,” Frontier head coach Gary Deane said. “To throw her in the circle there at the time when she came in, there was some pressure because it was a closer score.”
When Machon took the mound, Frontier led just 12-10 and had just allowed its second of two solo home runs from Hopkins sluggers Kaelyn Zaikitis and Anna Dyjach.
Impressive base running from Frontier had given it a leg up in the early innings, and in the second inning alone, Frontier scored four runs to make it 7-1, highlighted by a play where Cutting and Taylor both stole home on the same play. After a timeout meant to settle their players, the visiting Golden Hawks put their bats to work to mount a comeback attempt.
Hopkins picked up three runs in the top of the third, held Frontier to just one run in the bottom of the third thanks in large part to an impressive double play from third baseman Cassidi Mushenski, and then put together a four-run fourth to tie the score 8-8. That frame included Hopkins’ third homer of the day, a two-run blast from Bailey.
“Those couple of innings they started hitting the ball like I know that they can hit the ball,” Hopkins Academy head coach Paula Cristoforo said. “It’s new in the season. But I think all in all, they tried to stay with it as long as they could. Frontier’s always known to be a really good team, a well-coached team.”
The Redhawks responded quickly, working their at-bats and racking up four more runs to make it 12-8. Though it looked like the Golden Hawks would tie it up again after their two solo homers in the fifth, Machon went in and silenced Hopkins batters while her and her teammates went to work at the plate.
“I think we had a lot of confidence at the plate which helped to get so many runs in,” Taylor said. “Even though we had a few errors on defense, we were able to pick ourselves up and come back and make it up at the plate.”
Zaikitis thew all 5.1 innings for Hopkins, striking out eight batters and walking 15. Frontier took advantage of all its runners on base late, notching six runs in both the fifth and sixth inninga to end the game early with a 14-run margin of victory.