Baseball tourney pits foes in first round
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"Battle of the Bridge" Part III will be held Friday night.
Get the peanuts, popcorn and sunflower seeds ready.
The Amherst Regional and Northampton baseball teams will meet for a third time this season when they face off in the first round of the Western Massachusetts Division 1 Tournament at 6 p.m. at Community Field.
Amherst (13-7) is the No. 4 seed. Northampton (9-11) is No. 13 out of 14 teams. Seeds were announced Wednesday at Northampton High School.
Northampton won 3-1 on May 10 when the two rivals played at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Amherst won 7-6 in the season finale on Saturday in South Hadley. The Hurricanes scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh for the walk-off win.
While Northampton may have had the upper hand in both games, Amherst holds the wild card - Kevin Ziomek.
The junior southpaw, who has overpowered opponents all season, did not pitch one inning against the Blue Devils.
Amherst coach Greg Vouros did not say if Ziomek will start Friday but offered, "When he's on the mound he gives us a chance to win. We know he's going to. He gives our team confidence going into a playoff round."
Ziomek went 6-2 with a 0.60 earned run average for the Hurricanes this season. He has struck out 83 in 46-2/3 innings and allowed 13 hits and four earned runs.
Ziomek defeated second-seeded and defending champion Westfield twice (earning one win in relief), No. 5 Chicopee in which he threw his first-career no-hitter, No. 9 Holyoke, No. 11 Agawam and No. 12 Minnechaug.
He lost 3-1 to No. 1 East Longmeadow and 2-1 to No. 3 Cathedral.
As good as Ziomek has been, his supporting cast isn't too shabby. Derek Osborne is 2-1 with a 2.40 ERA while Sean Cunningham is 3-4 with a 3.04 ERA. Osborne took the loss against Northampton in New York while Dean Bonneau earned the win Saturday.
If Ziomek does not pitch Friday, one of those three would likely get the call.
"We have confidence with whoever is on the mound," Ziomek said. "As long as our bats are there, we'll win some games."
Division 3
Hopkins Academy is another team looking to following the lead of its ace.
Burke Bonneville pitched in relief in the 2007 Division 2 state final as a sophomore at Wahconah Regional. He held Oliver Ames scoreless for three innings but Wahconah was no-hit in a 13-0 loss.
Bonneville has now been the ace for Hopkins the last two years. This year the senior righty has gone 7-3 with a 1.98 ERA over 53 innings while striking out 65 and walking 12.
"He's ready to go," Hopkins coach Pat Lemieux said. "He'll do whatever it takes."
The Golden Hawks (13-7) are the No. 6 seed and will host No. 11 Granby (15-5) at 4 p.m. Friday in Hadley. Hopkins won 11-0 in the season finale for both teams last Friday. Bonneville allowed three hits over six innings for the win in that game.
"I have to give it my all," Bonneville said. "We don't have a big pitching staff so I have to get a lot of work done for us."
Defending champion Frontier Regional (10-10), winners of four straight, will host No. 10 Westfield Vocational (14-4) at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Gateway Regional (No. 9, 11-9) plays at No. 8 St. Mary (17-3) at 4 p.m. Friday in Westfield.
Division 2
Belchertown (11-9), which finished in a four-way tie for second place in the Suburban League, earned the No. 2 seed.
The Orioles have a powerful offense. The team cracked 13 home runs this season and went 8-1 when scoring at least eight runs.
Belchertown will host a quarterfinal game at 4 p.m. Monday against the winner of the first-round matchup between No. 10 South Hadley (6-14) and defending champion and No. 7 Hoosac Valley (12-8). That game is at 4 p.m. Friday in Cheshire.
The Tigers qualified for the postseason by finishing in the four-way tie for second in the Suburban.
Semifinals and finals
Semifinal games will be played Wednesday at times and sites are to be determined.
Championship games will be played June 6 at Szot Park in Chicopee.
Mike Moran can be reached at mmoran@gazettenet.com.
