TURNERS FALLS – The Hampshire Regional softball team didn’t move a runner past first base until the seventh inning and lost to Pittsfield 6-2 in the Western Mass. Class B championship game on Thursday afternoon at Gary Mullins Field.

In last year’s championship game, also against Pittsfield, the Raiders were the ones silencing bats. Senior pitcher Joss Mettey allowed six scattered hits in a 6-0 Hampshire win. On Thursday, roles were reversed. 

Hampshire struggled to make solid contact against Generals starter Amanda Pou, who allowed just three baserunners (all singles) and no runs across the first six frames. Hampshire’s bats didn’t get comfortable until the seventh inning, where they rallied for four hits and two runs.

“Today, it just was a fight the whole game,” Hampshire head coach Brian McGan said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to give credit to the pitcher.”

Back on May 14, Hampshire (13-7) tallied six runs on Pou in the first two frames, but Pou held the Raiders to just one run over the final five innings and Pittsfield rallied for a 12-7 win. On Thursday, Pou never let the Raiders get going. She didn’t allow more than one baserunner in an inning until the seventh.

“I knew [Pittsfield] could swing the bats so I knew we had to do it too,” McGan said. “And we didn’t do it for five innings, so that was the difference in the whole game. We didn’t hit and they did.”

Pittsfield threatened with a pair of baserunners in each of the first two innings and then broke through with four runs in the fourth. It looked like Hampshire might escape the inning down just 2-0, but Pou drilled a double deep in the left-center gap to double the Generals’ lead.

Pittsfield continued to make hard contact in the fifth inning and added two more runs to go up 6-0.

Teagan Charles, CC Thayer and Raegan Dubay led off the seventh inning with singles and Hailey Wodecki and Ryanne Dubay drove Charles and Thayer home. Pou settled and induced a pair of groundouts to end the game.

Hampshire now heads into the MIAA Division 4 state tournament as the No. 8 seed – Pittsfield is No. 3 – and receives a bye for the preliminary round. The Raiders are attempting to make another deep run after last season’s state title game appearance.

Hampshire hosts No. 25 Wahconah in the Round of 32 on Saturday at 5 p.m. Hampshire beat Wahconah 12-0 on May 20 in the Western Mass. Class B quarterfinals.

“We’ll try to do some damage,” McGan said. “We’re still a good team, we just have to have more confidence in ourselves.”