HADLEY – Defending a championship has become a rite of spring on the baseball diamond behind Hopkins Academy.
The Golden Hawks have won the past three Western Massachusetts championships contested over the last four years, and the program’s first state title since 1985 last year. Each of those teams have featured underclassmen that didn’t quite feel the trophies belonged to them. It created a culture of striving to maintain the legacy and add more banners to the gym.
“We’re not owed anything,” Hopkins coach Dan Vreeland said. “We can be really proud of what we did, and we can want to build on it, but it’s not a gift. It’s not something that we’re given.”
The only senior, Andrew Ciaglo, was a member of the past two championship squads, winning Western Mass. as a freshman and junior and the state title last season. He knows as well as anyone that championships don’t just attract accolades.
“We’re gonna get everyone’s best shot. We’ve got a target on our back,” Ciaglo said.
The Golden Hawks will navigate that attention with unfamiliar faces in new roles. There are only three upperclassmen on the team: Ciaglo and juniors Patrick Fitzgibbons and Cody West. They graduated eight seniors, most of whom started. That leaves a lot of at bats to backups stepping into larger roles or new varsity call-ups.
“We have kids coming up that are used to baseball and play baseball a lot. We’re going to work with them, and I think they’re varsity-ready,” Fitzgibbons said.
That class formed the core of Hopkins’ latest run. It provided Vreeland with a comfort and familiarity filling out his lineup. He knew where everyone fit, give or take swapping a pitcher to shortstop or the outfield. This edition will take some more tinkering.
“How do we go through adversity?” Ciaglo said. “We’re such a young team. Baseball is pretty much a mind game throughout all seven innings. (I’m excited to see) how we handle certain situations and how we bounce back after either striking out or making an error.”
HAMP PREPPING FOR FIRED UP OPPONENTS – Northampton knows it will get teams’ best shot as the “last Division 1 Western Mass. champion,” as coach Ryan Parent deemed them last season.
“Like I told the guys, the only thing that’s in the back of my mind about it is they know that everybody’s gonna, particularly in the beginning of the season, they’re gonna gear up to beat us,” he said. “It’s a new team. We lost Will Shaw, we lost, obviously, Jack Power who was our all-everything catcher, so we lost those guys. We’re rebuilding and the idea is just (to) work hard and have fun.”
The Blue Devils graduated 10 seniors from its first sectional champion squad in 25 years but boast a balanced returning squad led by seven seniors, including four-year starter Dominic Badorini.
“We don’t feel any pressure to prove ourselves, we just want to come down here and win ball games one game at a time,” senior Jack Kelleher-Mochak said. “We’re just trying to bring the energy and just get better every game, really.”
ORIOLES UNDER THE RADAR – Belchertown is fine with sneaking up on people again. The Orioles reached the Western Massachusetts Division 3 final last season as a No. 8 seed in coach Evan Berneche’s first year.
“We feel like we’re kind of being overlooked because everyone thought it was a fluke,” Berneche said. “That’s kind of how we like it.”
Belchertown brought back six of its nine starters and nearly its entire pitching staff. Chris Misiaszek had 18 hits and nine RBIs in just 16 games. He also formed a powerful top of the pitching rotation with Brady Perkins.
GET THE HORNS – The way Granby’s 2021 season ended still isn’t sitting right with the Rams. They were two-hit in the Western Massachusetts semifinals in an upset loss to end their perfect season.
“We use it to fuel ourselves. That loss was really hurtful for all of us,” Granby catcher Michael Toth said.
The Rams graduated three seniors but retained depth in their lineup and top-end talent like Michael Toth, his brother Raymond Toth and pitcher Ryan Gaughan, who threw a no-hitter to open the season, among others.
“We understand it’s a whole new year,” Granby coach Jim Woods said. “We’ll see how things play out.”
AMHERST YOUTH SERVED – For the second year in a row, Amherst will field one of the youngest teams in Western Mass. The Hurricanes graduated 12 seniors in 2020 and are still in the process of rebuilding the program. They have seven sophomores, two freshman and just five upperclassmen.
A group of largely freshmen and sophomores went 0-10 last season but opted in to the Western Massachusetts tournament for experience. The Hurricanes led six of those games heading into the final two innings but succumbed due to inexperience on the mound. Now that squad is another year older and anchored by seniors Evan Dooley and Nate Mills.
“I’m pleased with the future of Amherst baseball. We’re trying to change the culture every day,” Amherst coach Jeff Gladu said after an early-season loss to Frontier. “These will be games we pull out at the end of the year.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.