Hopkins Academy smashed its way to the MIAA Division 5 baseball state championship game.

The No. 9 seed Golden Hawks scored at least six runs in all four games to reach the final against No. 2 Bourne at Polar Park in Worcester (noon, Saturday). Hopkins Academy (18-4) trailed by multiple runs in the first three games against McCann Tech, Douglas and the top seed Georgetown but found a way through.

“We’ve done a good job and prided ourselves on being a team that doesn’t quit, who doesn’t go away,” Hopkins Academy coach Dan Vreeland said. “You can get up on us, but that doesn’t mean we’re gone.”

They’ll face a Bourne team built much the same way. The No. 2 Canalmen (17-7) rallied with a three-run triple by their No. 9 hitter in the semifinal against Ayer-Shirley to reach their first state title game.

“Bourne’s done a lot of that, being able to put the ball in play and find holes. That’s baseball, especially at this level,” Vreeland said. “You can’t be comfortable with a three run lead on them.”

Hopkins Academy will be playing for its second state championship in the past three years. The Golden Hawks have two state championship trophies in their hallway trophy case (1985, 2021) and went to the final in 2014.

“It’s a little crazy. It’s hard to believe we’re playing in another state championship game. It’s little surreal right now,” Hopkins Academy senior Patrick Fitzgibbons said. “I knew we were capable of it. We’ve been hitting the crap out of the ball and executing everything right.”

That hasn’t been the case all season. Sometimes when the Golden Hawks hit, they couldn’t get anybody out. Occasionally when their pitching staff was on, the bats didn’t show up. Hopkins Academy scored double-digit runs seven times but averaged fewer than four runs per game in their four losses, an average boosted by the 11 they put up against Ware in the Western Massachusetts semifinals (a 15-11 loss).

“You put up a big spot and we’re having a good game and you wonder, ‘can you do that to a really good team?’” Vreeland said. “There were some games we were a little flat this year, but since we started in the playoffs, to be able to put up big numbers against good teams, it’s been amazing to watch.”

Hopkins Academy hasn’t relied on one or two big hitters to score, either. The entire lineup has contributed both when the Golden Hawks have needed hits and once they start rolling.

“It’s been, I keep not wanting to say surprising, because I do have a lot of faith in these kids, but it’s still a little bit surprising,” Vreeland said. “I went into this year thinking a lot of people needed to take a step forward, and they all took a step forward.”

Only one player graduated from last season’s quarterfinalist squad – stalwart pitcher and shortstop Andrew Ciaglo. But that run gave the younger players time to develop and become varsity starters that showed up in 2023.

“It’s been guys who weren’t supposed to be ‘the guys’ this year, which is rewarding in its own way. Some of it is maturity, being around the varsity team for two years. A lot of it is they work so hard,” Vreeland said. “It’s that commitment to being a little bit better than they were yesterday. You’d like to hope that every high schooler does that kind of thing, but it’s not. Not every kid commits himself to being a little better, but the beautiful thing about this entire team is everyone has something that they’re working on and trying to be better than they were the day before.”

That starts with the leadership group. Four players helped raise the championship trophy in 2021: seniors Fitzgibbons and Cody West as well as juniors Cooper Beckwith and Liam Flynn.

“We’re built for these moments. We have a lot of experience with long playoff runs,” Fitzgibbons said. “We’ve been playing with each other since elementary school. It doesn’t surprise me that we’re in this moment now, it was just a matter of putting some hits together.”

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