NORTHAMPTON — It was one of those days at the plate for the Hopkins Academy softball team on the road against Northampton on Wednesday afternoon. Any ball that came near the zone, the Golden Hawks got a bat on it, and they raced around the bases to put pressure on the Blue Devils’ defense in each inning.

Eight different Hopkins players came around to score, and the Hawks used a two-run blast from Alayna Bailey to earn a 15-2 victory and snap a two-game skid. Cassandra Dion struck out nine and gave up only three hits without surrendering a walk in a complete-game effort for Hopkins.

“When we do well, she normally is the spear-head of that — and she did really well today,” Golden Hawks head coach Lindsey Lord said. “Our fielding was good, and Cassie kind of took care of the rest for us... Quite a few people got RBIs, people taking stolen bases, it all added up and helped us in the end.”

Hopkins wasted no time getting started with its bats. Lily Ellia (single) and Dion (walk) each reached base as did Maggie Potter, then Bailey ripped a double that brought home a pair to make it 2-0 Hawks. They would grab one more run on an Olivia Earle RBI groundout. Dion struck out two Northampton batters in the bottom of the first to bring Hopkins right back to the dish.

The top of its lineup came back around and similar to the first time through, the Golden Hawks’ top four hitters all reached safely. Ellia took first on an error, Dion reached on a fielder’s choice and then Maggie Potter connected on a single that brought both runners home. Bailey then blasted her home run to make it 7-0 after two innings.

“It gave us tons of momentum,” Lord said of Bailey’s home run. “I actually kind of get nervous after home runs, because usually the next person going in thinks they also have to hit one. So it’s a great moment, but I’m just glad we settled down and stayed nice and level moving forward.”

Hopkins added four more in the third behind an Ellia two-run single that scored Caillie Edwards and Allison Skwicz and all of a sudden the Hawks were ahead 11-0.

But Northampton showed some fight in the bottom half of the frame. Jani Gotay tallied a one-out single from the nine hole, Haly Doucette-Kaplan reached safely on a fielder’s choice then Lily Pelis tattooed a ball for an RBI triple. Pelis would later score on an error on a ball hit by Jayda Alejandro.

The Blue Devils put together a strong inning against Dion, Hopkins’ ace.

“They’re starting to gel, and communicate well as a team,” Northampton coach Chase Every Giroux said. “They showed what they can do a few times today and it was great to see. They’re close. We’re going to get back to the basics and I think once we fully connect, things will fall into place.”

Another three-spot in the fourth and an insurance run in the fifth was all Hopkins needed to put a bow on Wednesday’s contest. Dion, who has been tremendous in the circle throughout her career, buckled down the rest of the way.

The score may have indicated a comfortable Golden Hawks win, but Northampton made the visitors work for everything. The Blue Devils made several good plays in the field and began putting the ball in play after a slow start in the opening two frames.

When Every Giroux took over last season, the team was in a rebuilding phase with loads of underclassmen — and even some middle schoolers. Lord and Hopkins outscored Northampton a combined 34-0 in the teams’ pair of meetings last spring. She was quick to compliment the growth of the Blue Devils after just one season under Every Giroux.

“Northampton played really, really well,” Lord said. “They’ve made a lot of progress already, and I think their pitching has been great. They played solid today, and they’re a good team all around.”

The biggest difference between Northampton last season and Northampton in 2025 is the pitching that Lord mentioned. It’s not that the Blue Devils didn’t have players do everything they could to put together something in the circle in 2024, but they didn’t have players who grew up pitching or had any varsity experience.

And while Every Giroux’s pitchers — Greta Lepore and Emily Kajka — this spring are only in eighth grade, they both are very talented and have bright futures ahead of them. That’s allowed players like Doucette-Kaplan and Pelis, who rotated pitching duties a year ago, to return to their normal positions and help strengthen the Blue Devils defense.

It’s helped Northampton already – a 27-1 win over Amherst last week a recent example.

“We had two players who never pitched before step up and take the mound, and I appreciated that, but they didn’t have the experience,” Every Giroux said. “We have a couple of eighth graders this year who can pitch, and that already has made a huge culture shift. The rest of the team feels a little more relaxed, and they feel good about that. I think that’s been the most significant thing.”

Frontier 2, Turners Falls 1 — Madi Liimatainen starred for the Thunder, hitting a home run and fanning 13 batters to surpass 1,000 career strikeouts, but Turners Falls fell to Frontier as the Redhawks scored both runs in the seventh to walk it off. The game-winning run came on a wild pitch, allowing Delaney Fifield to scamper home after she reached earlier on a single. Skyler Steele also singled and scored in the seventh.

Frontier has now won three straight after losing its season opener and sits at 3-1 heading into a Friday matchup with Mount Greylock.

Granby 18, Ware 12 — The Rams’ bats were hot on Wednesday as they totaled 17 hits in the victory.

Katie Grabherr led the charge, going 4-for-4 (two singles, two triples) with three runs scored and three RBIs while Cassie Flaherty homered and went 3-for-5 for Granby. Ellie Szlosek (2-for-5) also smacked a home run for the Rams.

SICS 17, Smith Academy 2 — Lily Harrington drove in a run for the Falcons, and Caitlin Graves added a hit in a loss to the Bulldogs in Hatfield on Wednesday.

Belchertown 7, Pathfinder 2 — Sophia Mitus went 2-for-3 at the plate and drove in a run for the Orioles in its first win of the season. Kina Roy also recorded a couple hits for Belchertown, which finished with seven in the victory.

Madeline Williams went all seven innings in the circle for Orioles, allowing 10 hits, while striking out six and walking five.

Springfield Central 24, Holyoke 2 (4) — The Purple Knights’ only two runs came in the first inning and they took a 2-0 lead into the second, but Central scored 11 in the bottom of the frame before combining for 13 more in the third and fourth innings to run away with the win on Wednesday.

Kylie Blaha recorded a hit and scored a run for Holyoke.

Lee 23, Amherst 0 (5) — A dozen runs out of the gate stunned the Hurricanes, and their bats could never respond as they fell in four innings.

Lily Powell (single) and Maggie Collins (walk) reached safely for Amherst.

Baseball

Monson 12, Granby 0 — Tyler Labonte struck out eight in a five-inning no-hitter for the Mustangs on Wednesday in Granby.

Gavin Moreno walked for the lone Granby baserunner.

Mount Greylock 13, Amherst 1 — The Hurricanes were limited to two hits to fall to 0-3. Mount Greylock scored five runs in the first inning and never looked back, totaling 13 hits.

Pope Francis 9, Northampton 2 — Two runs weren’t enough for the Blue Devils against a strong Cardinals squad on Wednesday afternoon.

Northampton fell to 0-3 with the loss and is still in search of win No. 1 this spring.

Boys tennis

PVCICS 5, SICS 0 — The Dragons cruised to victory on the courts, winning all five matches in impressive fashion.

Lee Ferguson and Derek Ye won their singles matches 6-0, 6-0, for PVCICS and Devan Ye almost completed the perfect stretching winning 6-0, 6-2.

The Dragons’ doubles team of James and Teddy Scott and Simon Speek and Gabe Loinaz also took care of business rather easily.

Girls tennis

Belchertown 3, East Longmeadow 2 — Three of the five matches went to a third and final set on Wednesday afternoon, and the Orioles prevailed in each of those instances to remain undefeated with a big win over the Spartans.

Mia Corish split her first two sets 6-3, 0-6 before winning the third 6-2 at second singles. Ginna Picardi went 7-5, 4-6 and then triumphed 7-5 in the rubber set at third singles. And if those two matches weren’t thrilling enough, Katie Collins and Edith Audette rounded out Belchertown’s nail-biting wins with a 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 dramatic victory – giving the Os their fourth W of the season in as many tries.

PVCICS 5, Greenfield 0 — The Dragons didn’t drop a set, cruising to a sweep on Wednesday at Hampshire College.

Elisa Shinn (6-1, 6-0), Sabine Loinaz (6-2, 6-0) and Lien Powers Mordan (6-1, 6-0) earned the singles victories for PVCICS, while Eloise Tuleja and Kendall Christensen (first doubles) won 6-0, 6-0 and Chelsea Chartier and Kaylyn Lane (second doubles) picked up a 6-1, 6-4.

Track & field

Hampshire 66, Belchertown 64 (boys); Hampshire 89, Belchertown 50 (girls) — Kathleen Barry won both the mile (5:58.00) and two mile (22:29.00) to lead the Raiders girls team to a win over the Orioles on Wednesday. Tessa Burke (110 hurdles, 19.40), Natalie Dunlap (400 hurdles, 1:19.50) and Gabriella Dybacki (high jump, 4-06) also picked up key wins.

Belchertown’s Fallon Clancy won three events, claiming first in the long jump (14-10.25), the 100m dash (13.01) and the 200m dash (28.04).

Amherst 112, Longmeadow 33 (girls); Longmeadow 100.5, Amherst 44.5 (boys) — The ‘Canes girls dominated on Wednesday, with Ruby Austin (100m, 13.00), Moriah Luetjen (200m, 26.05 and 400m, 59.55), Skylar Fox (800m, 2:22.26), Brooke Nedeau (1 mile, 5:36.21), Genevieve Dole (2 mile, 12:14.94 and high jump, 4-10), Elizabeth Sawicki (100m hurdles, 18.58, 400m hurdles, 1:11.78 and pole vault, 8-0.00), Yairelis Bachand (shot put, 28-10) and Claire Fortin (triple jump, 34-09.00) winning events.

Owen Platt (400, 52.59), Nico Lisle (800, 2:00.39), Calvin Miller (1 mile, 4:50.86), Logan Alfandari (shot put, 53-04.75 and discus, 161-00.00), Wesley Dunford (high jump, 5-08) and Miles Jeffries (triple jump, 41-06) were the winners for Amherst’s boys team.

Boys volleyball

Chicopee Comp 3, Belchertown 0 — The Orioles started strong but ran out of steam against the undefeated (5-0) Colts on Wednesday afternoon, as Belchertown dropped to 1-4 with the loss.

Set scores were 25-18, 25-14, 25-11.