When Turners Falls pitcher Jade Tyler recorded her 11th strikeout of the game to close out rival Greenfield on Thursday, the visiting Thunder improved to a perfect 11-0 on the season.
Eleven wins this spring. One win against the Green Wave. But for veteran head coach Gary Mullins, Thursday’s victory provided a nice, round number. And a large one at that.
With the 14-1 thumping of Greenfield, Mullins racked up the 700th victory in his Hall of Fame coaching career (he was inducted into the Massachusetts Softball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1994). While he has over 1,000 total coaching victories between all sports, his new total of 700 softball wins only add to his all-time state record.
Mullins went 13-5 in his first season (1980), getting to the WMass Division II semifinals. The team improved to 16-2 the next year and advanced to the finals, the beginning of a beautiful friendship between Turners Falls softball and success.
Mullins, who won his 600th game in a 28-0 road shutout of Hopkins back in 2015, said he didn’t know the significance of Thursday’s win until after the game, when assistant coach Jackie Mickiewicz shared the news with him in the dugout.
“I was surprised to hear,” he revealed. “I had no idea. That’s the honest truth. It was a big game, against a really good team, and so my main focus was just on that.”
This season marks Mullins’ 40th as varsity softball coach in the Powertown. He took over in 1980 and hasn’t slowed down since. In that span, he’s won 20 WMass championships along with a state-record nine MIAA titles. Seven hundred wins in 40 years? That’s an average of 17½ per season.
“It’s obviously an unbelievable accomplishment,” lauded Turners Falls athletic director Adam Graves. “It’s longevity plus success, combined. He’s done it really well for a long, long time.”
Mullins was quick to deflect praise to others involved in the program.
“We’ve had some really good players over the years here. I’m lucky,” he said.
Graves guaranteed Mullins won’t dwell on the accomplishment for too long. While his team moved into first place in the Franklin County League with the victory over Greenfield, there’s little rest for the weary when it comes to guiding the most decorated softball program in Massachusetts history.
“He’ll still be up until 3 o’clock in the morning trying to figure out how to beat Frontier on Monday,” Graves said with a laugh. “His drive is incredible and he passes that onto the kids.”