HADLEY – Let it pour.

The Hopkins Academy softball team weathered a rainstorm and a pesky Maynard offense to reach the Division 5 state quarterfinal with a 10-6 victory Thursday at home.

“We had the challenge of rain, and it’s gonna happen no matter what,” Hopkins Academy senior Jessie Markowski said. “We stayed up the whole time because we want to go to this next game, we want to win this.”

The No. 7 Golden Hawks will travel to No. 2 Mount Greylock on Sunday at a time to be determined. The Western Massachusetts foes did not meet during the regular season.

“We just want to make our school proud and make the town proud,” Markowski said. “We want to get as far as we can and have a great season.”

Markowski started and ended the inning that put Hopkins Academy over the hump. The Golden Hawks and No. 10 Tigers were tied at 2 after a wet top of the fourth inning that allowed Maynard to score twice. Hopkins Academy coach Paula Cristoforo pulled pitcher Kaelyn Zakaitis during that inning because her grip and velocity weren’t conducive to throwing in the rain. She went to the craftier Cassie Dion to get out of the inning.

Hopkins Academy batted around and scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth. Markowski walked to lead off, then Lily Ellia launched a tricky double to deep center field. That put them on second and third for Cassie Dion. She brought both home with a sharp single to make it 4-2 and put the Golden Hawks ahead for good.

“I wasn’t really thinking that much,” Dion said. “I was just excited.”

The excitement kept rolling. After a pop out, Daisy Venditti walked, and Taylor Barry walked to load the bases. A third consecutive walk to Laney Bailey brought in a run. Cassidi Mushenski hit into an error and brought another run home, and Maggie Potter made it 7-2 with a sacrifice fly. 

“We just stayed true to our course. We’ve been working a lot on our hitting in practice, and I think it really paid off,” Hopkins Academy coach Paula Cristoforo said.

Maynard pulled back three in the sixth to make it 7-5, and Cristoforo went back to Zakaitis. She got the Golden Hawks out of the inning and out of the game.

Hopkins Academy’s offense gave her more room to work with after dropping in five consecutive hits, including two doubles, that extended the lead to 10-5. Bailey led off with a double, then Mushenski followed with an RBI single. Potter dropped in a bloop single, then Markowski hit an RBI double and slid into second, a rarity for her.

“I’m not the fastest, and over the years I’ve never really slide, but this year I’ve been sliding a little more,” she said. “Taylor said I had a good slide, and when Tyalor says I had a good slide I’ll take it, she’s the master of it.”

Ellia tacked on the final run with a single, and that five-run lead proved too much for Maynard to manage.

“It means a lot for this program, the milestones we’ve been able to hit this year, the people who’ve been able to hit those milestones and the team as a whole, we’re just really proud,” Cristoforo said. 

Venditti scored Hopkins Academy’s first run with some heads up base running. She singled then tried to stretch Barry’s single behind her and get to third. Maynard’s throw caught her between second and third, but Venditti escaped the pickle and came home when the ball skipped out of play.

Bailey made it 2-0 with a ground rule double in the second inning.

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