SOUTH HADLEY – Ella Schaeffer had already tossed nine innings of shutout ball, but when the South Hadley pitcher stepped to the plate against Easthampton in the bottom of the ninth inning with a runner on second base and one out, she still had some heroics remaining.

Schaeffer drove a two-strike offering into left field, where it cleared the left fielder’s glove for a double to drive Ara Powers home and give South Hadley a 1-0 extra-inning victory.

“At first, I was like ‘oh, she’s going to catch it’” Schaeffer said. “And then I was like ‘oh, that’s in the gap.’ I said ‘why not’ and just kept running.”

And the Tigers walk it off!

Ella Schaeffer knocks in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. She also pitched a complete game shutout.

Final, for the second time this season:
South Hadley: 1
Easthampton: 0 pic.twitter.com/1Paq4gy6K3

— Connor Pignatello (@c_pignatello) April 30, 2024

No one was more relieved to see Schaeffer’s hit touch the outfield grass than South Hadley coach Junior Perez. To start Schaeffer’s at-bat, he had signaled for her to bunt Powers from second to third. Schaeffer showed bunt twice, but both times, she couldn’t get her bat on the ball.

“Thank god she didn’t get the bunt down when I asked her to,” Perez said.

“That bunt made me get in my game,” Schaeffer said. “Because I was like ‘why are you going to have me bunt?’ So then I took (the next pitch). I took it far.”

It was the second time in a month the Tigers (8-2) beat the Eagles (4-5) by a 1-0 scoreline. South Hadley won the season opener at Easthampton, with a sixth-inning catcher’s interference call the only difference between the two teams.

In that season opener, Schaeffer threw seven innings, allowing just two hits and striking out 14. Easthampton’s Rosie Follet also threw a complete game and gave up one run on four hits and three walks with 10 strikeouts.

Schaeffer and Follet were just as sharp in the rematch on Tuesday afternoon. Both threw nine innings. Schaeffer allowed six hits and struck out eight and Follet allowed three hits and struck out nine. Both games could’ve gone either way and both coaches commended how even the two teams were.

“Honestly,” Schaeffer said, “what separates us is nothing.”

It was a pitchers’ duel throughout. Easthampton put Ana Growhoski on third with no outs in the first, but couldn’t score. The Eagles didn’t advance anyone to third for the rest of the game, though they did put runners in scoring position in the first, fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth innings.

Follet held South Hadley to one hit through six innings and allowed just three runners in scoring position until the Tiger’s ninth-inning breakthrough. 

Both coaches said games like Tuesday’s will help their teams as they head into the final weeks of the regular season.

“It’s good to face good competition like this,” Easthampton coach Corey Robinson said. “This is only going to prepare us if we make the state tournament.”

In their first year in the Valley Wheel after moving up from the Suburban West, Perez and the Tigers are tied for first place in the league with East Longmeadow. They’re looking to host their first playoff game in over a decade.

“These are great because it’s a playoff atmosphere,” Perez said. “If we’re going to make it to the postseason, these are the games we’ve got to find a way to win.”