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By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

HADLEY – The red shed off to the side of the Hopkins Academy softball field has seen some use. For decades, Golden Hawks baseball and softball pitchers used it as a backstop in pregame warmups. But now, with construction on a new athletic field...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

BELCHERTOWN — Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School boys tennis coach Mike Locher has a Star Wars character assigned to each player on his team.After every match, he sends his players a game recap, along with a YouTube video of their Star...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

SOUTH HADLEY – Ella Schaeffer had already tossed nine innings of shutout ball, but when the South Hadley pitcher stepped to the plate against Easthampton in the bottom of the ninth inning with a runner on second base and one out, she still had some...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

Ursula von Goeler likes making calculations.Her favorite subject is physics. She’s decided to major in it next year at Bowdoin College.But that love of matter and its behavior through space and time isn’t just limited to the classroom. It stretches...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

EASTHAMPTON – The Easthampton baseball team is taking a trip to Burger King, and sophomore left fielder Bailey Davis’ usual order of chicken nuggets is going to taste extra special.It’s a tradition the Eagles have after every win, but this season has...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

At the end of the cul de sac on Gooseberry Lane, there’s a basketball hoop. It’s a refuge, a listener and a teacher.A few years back, the hoop’s adjustable lever broke during a storm. It’s held together with duct tape, but it’s sensitive. If the...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

FOXBOROUGH – When I was 8 years old, a Spanish friend of my dad gave me a present. It was a Lionel Messi FC Barcelona No. 10 jersey, with the club’s classic blue and red vertical stripes and the UNICEF sponsor across the front.That jersey was my most...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

SOUTH HADLEY – The South Hadley boys lacrosse team scored five unanswered goals in the fourth quarter to get within striking distance of Agawam (5-3), but the Tigers (4-5) comeback fell short in a 10-6 Valley League home loss on Friday afternoon.Solid...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

EASTHAMPTON – Hopkins Academy sophomore Chace Earle tossed the longest outing of his career and the Golden Hawks blanked Easthampton 13-0 in a Suburban League West baseball contest on a sunny Thursday afternoon.Hopkins (3-2) scored eight runs in the...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

It was the beginning of the 2021-22 hockey season, and Amherst captain Carter Beckwith and assistant captain Nick Paul were tasked with finding a second assistant captain to round out the group.It didn’t take long for the pair of seniors to come to a...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

AMHERST – Amherst’s Miles Jeffries took the first set from Northampton’s Reilly Fowles on Wednesday afternoon, but rain shortened what had the potential to be the best boys tennis match of the season in Hampshire County. Amherst coach Kevin Jeffries...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

GRANBY – Anna Puttick won the draw, sprinted downfield, weaved between a few Granby defenders and then scored to give Hampshire Regional a 6-4 lead on the opening possession of the second half.Then, about 20 seconds later, the Raiders senior captain...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

Rich Ferro has been around Amherst boys lacrosse for decades. He played at Amherst in the 1990s, served as the Hurricanes’ athletic director from 2001-2019 and has been coaching hockey and lacrosse on and off for most of the past two decades.This...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

GRANBY – After an even first few frames, the Granby softball team’s bats came to life late against Smith Academy. The Rams captured a 21-8 victory under a consistent drizzle on Wednesday afternoon.With the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

The Hampshire Regional girls lacrosse team has come a long way since head coach Grace Ahrensdorf helped start up the program in 2017.Hampshire joined St. Mary and Westfield Tech’s cooperative program in 2018 and played a varsity schedule under the St....

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

The Hampshire Regional softball team lost just two seniors from last year’s squad that won the program’s fourth consecutive Western Mass. title, but the Raiders have quite a bit of production to make up.Jocelyn Mettey, the 2023 Daily Hampshire Gazette...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

EASTHAMPTON – After an offseason spent playing travel ball, Ella Schaeffer was counting down the days until South Hadley’s first game of the season at Easthampton.After a playoff loss two years ago on the same field, Schaeffer said she started out...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

GRANBY — After inclement weather caused every outdoor game on Thursday’s opening day of the spring season to be postponed, Hampshire County teams finally started spring regular season play Friday on a sunny, 50-degree afternoon.And the Granby baseball...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams, UMass’ leading rusher in 2023, announced he is re-entering the transfer portal on Thursday. Lynch-Adams’ announcement comes in the first week of full spring practice for the Minutemen.In 2023 as a redshirt junior, Lynch-Adams...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

AMHERST — The UMass football program held its annual pro day on Tuesday afternoon in front of scouts for the New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars. The Minutemen held their first spring practice of the year in the morning.UMass had 10 football...