Amherst Regional blanks Milford in rematch to reach state softball final
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AMHERST - Thursday marked a rare occasion of a sequel nearly matching the brilliant original.
Amherst Regional softball senior pitcher Emma Mendoker was dazzling in her second straight state Division 1 semifinal against Milford, but this year, she and the Hurricanes walked away with the victory.
Mendoker allowed two hits and two walks while striking out 12 as Amherst avenged last year's lone loss with a 3-0 win over the Scarlet Hawks at the UMass Softball Complex.
"We all have worked so hard. We knew we could do it," senior catcher Zoe Dillon-Davidson said. "We had the ability, we just had to come out and execute, do what Amherst softball does. We were very ready. We were happy to be playing them. They had beaten us before and we didn't want to let that happen again. It feels really, really good to beat them."
The Hurricanes (23-1) will square off against defending state champion King Philip of Wrentham (25-0) for the state title Saturday at Worcester State at 7 p.m.
In last year's semifinal, Mendoker was the ultimate tough-luck loser, allowing one run on three hits and no walks while striking out 16 in a 1-0 eight-inning loss.
On Thursday, the Hurricanes took advantage of some third-inning wildness from Milford sophomore pitcher Shannon Smith to score three runs.
Smith, last year's state Gatorade Player of the Year, walked Quianna Diaz-Patterson with one out. Simone Frank followed with a slapped single and Dillon-Davidson loaded the bases with a walk on a 3-1 pitch.
Mendoker followed, working the count to 3-1 before taking ball four and forcing Diaz-Patterson home for the go-ahead run.
"They are not kids who are afraid to swing the bat," Schmitt said. "They chose not to swing because it was a ball. That was huge. It's not just some kid shaking in their boots up there because it's Shannon Smith. (Their patience) was huge."
Junior Brittany Deres followed with the biggest hit of her career, a single to right that scored Frank and Dillon-Davidson for a 3-0 lead.
"It was an amazing feeling," Deres said. Getting a three-run lead "gives us a lot of confidence. Emma is a great pitcher and she has a great defense behind her."
Three runs were plenty for Mendoker, who cruised through the fifth having allowed just one walk and no hits before Rachel Levine reached on a two-out bloop single to left in the sixth.
Lauren Hanna then walked, bringing Smith, the No. 3 hitter, up as the tying run, but Mendoker induced a pop-up to Frank at third base to end the threat.
"I didn't want to give them anything they could rip, so I had to concentrate on the spins," Mendoker said. "My curveball was really working, so was my screwball and my rise ball, and I just had to give it everything."
Mendoker then pitched around a one-out single in the seventh with a pair of strikeouts to end the game, sparking a joyous celebration at the mound. The ace has allowed just one run in 28 postseason innings.
"We had a good scouting report (on Milford) and we knew what the hitters were looking for," said Dillon-Davidson. Mendoker's "pitches were working great and we kept going back to the ones that were working."
Meanwhile, Diaz-Patterson was her usual unstoppable self on the base paths, turning a pair of walks into virtual extra-base hits with a total of three stolen bases.
"I knew that if I could draw a walk, I had a bunch of great hitters behind me and they would find a way to hit me in," she said. "I just tried to do my part and get into a position to score and keep the pressure on" Milford.
She was stranded at third in the top of the first, but got back there in the third and Amherst took advantage.
Last year, the Hurricanes loaded the bases in the top of the first and didn't score. They never had another good chance in the loss.
"It's that year of maturity and experience, that's the kind of thing it will give you," Schmitt said. "A lot of them played ball over the summer, so that much more experience playing in close games, that much more confidence, that much more maturity, and they were able to move on and not make it more than it was. They have that confidence in themselves this year."
Saturday's state final will be the first for Amherst since 1994, the last of three straight trips to the title game all of which ended in losses to Bishop Fenwick.
The last western Massachusetts team to reach the final was Taconic of Pittsfield in 2005, which lost to Lowell.
Amherst won the state title over Canton in 1978. It remains the lone state Division 1 softball title ever won by a western Massachusetts team.
"Oh my god, that's a while ago," Deres said when told of the last time a western Massachusetts team won a Division 1 title. "It feels really good to have a chance to do that."
Jim Pignatiello can be reached at jpignatiello@gazettenet.com.
