The top-seeded Pittsfield baseball team lived up to the billing on Thursday afternoon, as they scored 15 unanswered runs against No. 4 Hampshire after falling into a 3-0 hole.

The Raiders fell 15-3 to the Generals in the Western Mass. Class B semifinal contest, and will now turn their attention to the state tournament.

Hampshire jumped out to a quick lead on a first-inning 3-run home run by Drew Thompson (scoring Liam Pond and Will Hogan), but Pittsfield climbed ahead by the second inning. A grand slam off the bat of Morrie Fried (3-for-4, six RBIs) put the game out of reach in the third inning.

Hogan enjoyed a 3-for-3 day fresh off his walk-off moonshot against Frontier in the quarterfinals, and Riley Florek added a single as well for Hampshire.

Pittsfield punches its ticket to the title game, where it will face fellow Berkshire County foe No. 6 Wahconah.

Class D semis

No. 2 Ware 4, No. 3 Hopkins 3 — The Golden Hawks fell just shy of a Western Mass. title berth on Thursday, falling to the reigning champs in Ware.

Hopkins is still comfortably in the top 32 of the Division 5 state tournament, which is what it will be now focusing on. The Hawks were No. 10 in the latest edition of the MIAA power rankings.

Ware heads to the Class D finals, where it will face No. 1 Pioneer Valley in a rematch of last year’s championship – which it won 3-1.

Softball

Class B semis

No. 1 Pittsfield 20, No. 5 Easthampton 4 (5) — The Eagles found themselves right in the mix of the Class B semis against the top seed, trailing 4-3 after the top of the third. But the Generals scored 16 runs over their next two innings, and Easthampton only managed three hits all game – which wasn’t enough to keep pace.

Makenna Slate recorded two of those hits and added an RBI, McKenzie McCarthy added the other hit and also scored a run. Megan Fickett and Kayley Downie crossed the plate as well for Easthampton.

Track & field

MIAA Div. 6 Championships, Day 1

A handful of Hampshire County teams were in action during Day 1 of the MIAA Division 6 Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Merrimack College on Thursday afternoon.

Four local schools had multiple participants throughout the day. Below is a list of each program’s top 10 finishers for both the girls and boys competitors.

Hampshire

Nick Brisson (third in 800, 1:59.33)

  Kathleen Barry (ninth in 2 mile, 12:25.18)

South Hadley

Maggie Crawford (ninth in 400 hurdles, 1:10.60)

Jameson Webber (10th in 400 hurdles, 1:00.64

Frontier

Evan Hedlund (eighth in 800, 2:01.76)

Lilly Novak (eighth in discus, 90-08)

Elsa Brown (ninth in pole vault, 8-06)

Nicole Plasse (10th in 800, 2:29.91)

Sylvie Dibartolomeo (10th in 2 mile, 2:33.07)

Madelyn Antes (10th in 400 hurdles, 1:11.89)

Easthampton

Giuseppe DeNucce-Simms competed in the pentathlon. His top three events were shot put (first, 12.43 meters), long jump (second, 5.73 meters) and high jump (fifth, 1.65 meters).

Morgan Wijnhoven also competed in the pentathlon on the girls side. Her top three events were shot put (fourth, 7.31 meters), long jump (fifth, 4.53 meters) and the 800 (sixth, 2:40.90).

MIAA Div. 3 Championships, Day 1

Holyoke was the only local school in action on at the Division 3 Championships on Thursday at Bridgewater State. Below is its list of top 10 finishers on the day.

Holyoke

Yasani Thompson (sixth in 200, 26.36)

Leilany Figueroa (eighth in 400 hurdles, 1:09.67)

Non-playoff games

Baseball

Easthampton 7, Mahar 6 (9) — The Senators had runners on second and third in the top of the ninth, but the Eagles closed the door with pitcher Ethan Mullaly – putting his team in prime position to win.

Brayden O’Connor (two hits, one RBI) then scored the game winning run in the bottom of the grame, scoring via a ground ball off the bat of Jason Sigda. Topher Reardon went 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs to pace Easthampton’s offense in the victory.

Softball

Athol 13, Belchertown 10 — The Orioles scored runs in all but one inning, but they still couldn’t keep up with the Bears in a close loss on Thursday.

Laura Cote tallied three hits and three RBIs, Isabella Cauley recorded two hits and scored a run and Emily Waller (three runs, two walks, one hit, one RBI) led the way offensively for Belchertown.

Girls tennis

Chicopee 3, Holyoke 2 — Holyoke’s Lily Lawrence bounced back from a 6-4 first set loss in dominant fashion, winning 6-0, 6-1 over the next two frames for a three-set win at second singles.

Gracie Chesmore added the other victory for the Purple Knights, earning a hard-fought 7-5, 7-5 win at No. 3 singles.

Late Wednesday results

Girls lacrosse

Northampton 14, Belchertown 10 — Kaydence Braman (six) and Imanni Power-Greene (four) combined for 10 goals to help the Blue Devils to a win on Wednesday. Makayla Fydenkevez and Olivia Wright each tallied twice to round out Northampton’s goal scorers.

Belchertown’s Paige Magner and Madysen LePage found the back of the net four times apiece while Lia Pikul (one) and Kenzie LePage (one) also scored goals.