Saddle up.

After coach Brian McGan’s “yeehaw” punctuated the last out of the Hampshire Regional softball team’s MIAA Division 4 quarterfinal win over defending champion Amesbury, the No. 2 Raiders will hit the road for the first time all tournament after hosting the first three rounds.

They’ll face No. 3 Clinton (20-1) at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Worcester State University. Despite being the higher seed, the Raiders will travel 70 miles east compared to a 15-mile jaunt for the Gaels. Hampshire hasn’t played at Worcester State since defeating Tewksbury to win a second straight state title in extra innings in 2016.

“We kind of drew the short straw. We’re not happy about it but there’s nothing you can do about it,” Hampshire coach Brian McGan. “We’ll relax on the bus ride, probably take a nap.”

But Hampshire (20-4) won’t sleep on Clinton. The Gaels have won 19 games in a row and done it in every imaginable fashion from blowouts to extra inning squeakers. Kaela Ciarletta leads Clinton with a .461 batting average and seven home runs on 35 hits and 38 RBIs. Pitchers Ella Repole and Leo Repole both have earned run averages under two in double-digit appearances for each. Ella ranks among the state’s best with 169 strikeouts, while Leo has walked just 18 in 39 innings.

“When you get to this point it’s hard to scout because they’re all over the state. I’ve got a little bit of an idea,” McGan said. “At this point it doesn’t matter how you do it as long as you do it.”

They’ll oppose Hampshire stalwart Jocelyn Mettey (more than 167 strikeouts) and a lineup that features six players with at least 20 hits and five double-digit RBI producers.

“The kids understand the situation. They’re working 10 times harder in practice. The younger ones don’t seem to be caught up in the moment. We’ll find out,” McGan said. “There’s a good mix on this team. Younger, older, middle ground.”

Hampshire seniors Mettey and Emma Czarniecki were on the team as eighth graders the last time the Raiders reached a state semifinal in 2019.

“The unique part about Hampshire Regional is you get to play in seventh and eighth grade and you get to play on a team that makes it that far. By the time you make it to your junior year, senior year it’s not overwhelming,” McGan said. “The moment is overwhelming when you first get on the field, but it’s a moment where you want the butterflies but not the nerves.”

GOLDEN HAWKS’ LONG ROAD – Hopkins Academy fought through the breadth of the MIAA Division 5 statewide baseball playoffs to reach a familiar place. After an opening home win, the No. 9 Golden Hawks traveled to No. 8 Douglas and No. 1 Georgetown (twice after a rain delay) on the path to a state semifinal matchup with No. 5 Pioneer Regional.

They covered more than 550 miles to end up at MacKenzie Stadium in Holyoke to face the Panthers at 4 p.m. Tuesday. Though the two teams didn’t meet this season, they’ve seen each other nearly once a season over the past half decade.

“It’s comforting and uncomfortable at the same time. A lot of times when you go out to the other side of the state and play those other teams, you don’t know what they have. You can do the research, but you’re not familiar, and that’s kind of freeing,” Hopkins Academy coach Dan Vreeland said. “When you know someone as well as you do Pioneer, you think a little more about it.”

At least Vreeland might. The Golden Hawks (18-4) haven’t sweat much this season. They’ve rallied from multiple-run deficits in every game of the state tournament, including a 5-0 hole at Georgetown.

“The beauty of this team is they don’t think about anything too long anyway,” Vreeland said.

Pioneer (21-1) has cut a tight path through the last two rounds, winning both games by a combined three runs. Hopkins knows the Panthers have power, though.

“They always swing really good bats. They don’t chase bad pitches,” Vreeland said. “They’re aggressive but disciplined at the same time. They hit balls really hard. We’re prepared for a shootout should we get into one but we hope we don’t have to get into one.”

The Golden Hawks will remain calm either way. They have four players (Cooper Beckwith, Patrick Fitzgibbons, Liam Flynn and Cody West) that won a state title in 2021 and have been in a state semifinal before.

“The beauty of this is in one sense they see it something completely new and are driven for it, but in another they draw on the experience of it,” Vreeland said.

HOPKINS ACADEMY VS. TURNERS FALLS: ROUND 3 – Once again, it’s Turners Falls. The Hopkins Academy softball team will face the Thunder for the third time this season, this time with more on the line than ever in Tuesday’s MIAA Division 5 state semifinal (3 p.m. Westfield State).

The seventh-seeded Golden Hawks took the season’s opening meeting way back in April, the second game of the season, while  No. 3 Turners prevailed in the Western Massachusetts Class D championship game two weeks ago.

“We went in the first time we played them with no expectations and we thought, ‘let’s play our best game.’ The second matchup that we had, I feel like they thought they could do it, but we were just really overwhelmed being on a completely different field and being in such a high level game for the first time, we were all little taken back,” Hopkins Academy coach Paula Cristoforo said.

The rubber match will send one team to the state final this weekend at UMass and end the other’s season. It would be the Thunder’s 18th trip. They’ve won 10 state championships and fell in last year’s semifinals.

Hopkins Academy (19-2), meanwhile, lost its only appearance 8-6 against Lynnfield in 1985.

“This matchup, we’ve talked about it as a team, it’s all icing on the cake. We want to go out and do the things that we need to do,” Cristoforo said. “We know that we can beat them. We’ve done it. We know that we can do it. It’s a matter of executing and being calm.”

The Golden Hawks reached this point with a powerful offense that has scored double-digit runs in every state tournament game and put up 27 against No. 2 Mount Greylock in the quarterfinals. They have approached the pitching circle different than most softball teams, too. Rather than leaning on one dominant pitcher to carry, Cristoforo has intermixed senior Kaelyn Zakaitis with eighth grader Cassie Dion, swapping between the two multiple times over the past few games. Zakaitis is a power, strikeout pitcher. Dion pitches with finesse. The contrast keeps teams off balance.

“They both know and understand at this point of the game we’ve been successful mixing it up and using both of them. That’s been a key to our success,” Cristoforo said.

That success will remain whether or not the Golden Hawks take down Turners (16-7) and play for a state title.

“Every step we go forward all feels great,” Cristoforo said. “I look forward to feeling great [Tuesday] no matter what.”

Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.]]>