Good morning!
Western Mass. Baseball Hall of Fame co-founder Mark DiFranco wants to honor the 1942 Turners Falls High School baseball team and its coach Earl Lorden. The Indians (as they were called) went to Fenway Park on June 20, 1942, and rallied from three runs down to beat Arlington High School, 5-4.

It was a remarkable feat considering teams weren’t divided by enrollment. No indeed, all teams were considered equal.

“The ’42 team looks like a given and I believe Earl Lorden with his three state finals should also be considered,” DiFranco emailed. “Who can help me dig up information to present to the HOF Board?”

The man for the occasion is Franklin County sports archivist Mike Cadran, who uses microfilm and high school yearbooks to find the names and records of the coaches and teams throughout Franklin County and Athol.

Lorden is already in the UMass Athletics Hall of Fame. He took over a losing program in 1948 and laid the groundwork for decades of successful hardball campaigns. His team made it to the 1954 College World Series and qualified for the NCAA tournament the next two seasons. They were perennial Yankee Conference champions and the program’s overall record under Lorden was 187-146-3 when he retired in 1966.

His baseball legacy began in 1923 when he was hired to coach at TFHS. According to Cadran, during the ensuing two-and-a-half decades Lorden wrote out 428 lineup cards and was 303-122-3 with four WMass titles (not three) plus the state championship.

His coaching skill made surnames like Zukowski, Togneri, Guy, Whiteman, Kostanski, Burke, Bassett, Mucha, Milewski, Mleczko, Niepp, Bush, Martin, Bourdeau and Welcome all recognizable to this day.

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The UMass hockey team returned from the hinterland with two wins in its creel against Minnesota State. The Mavericks play in Mankato which is 80 miles south of Minneapolis. Over 9,000 fans turned out at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center to watch the home team lose twice despite the home cooking.

“Referees out here really gave it to us,” UMass coach Greg Carvel emailed. “I was warned about it. Fourteen penalties later I will never doubt it again.”

On KTOE Radio, color analyst John Harrington saw Taylor Makar whip the stick from a Mav player’s hands and exclaimed, “You wonder where the kid's brain is.”

Makar has four penalties, no goals and plenty of players waiting for their chance. Maybe last night was the night he broke loose at BU which swept UMass three straight last year. It was the front end of a home-and-home and tonight UMass fans will get to see 17-year-old freshman Macklin Celebrini (No. 71) who has five goals, and his older brother Aiden (No. 22) who has a goal and three assists from the point.

Last year BU outscored UMass, 17-5, but that was before goalie Michael Hrabal came to town. Carvel’s on record saying he’ll go “weekend to weekend” with Hrabal and Cole Brady, but Hrabal is the better netminder and UMass would likely be 1-4 without him.

“He competes his butt off,” Carvel told Adam Wodon on his College Hockey News podcast. “He’s the last guy off the ice, he’ll let guys take one-timers from five feet away if they want to, and he gets upset when he’s scored on. He’s got a fire to him.”

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Army is favored by 10 points to beat UMass in a noontime kickoff today at West Point. Two weeks ago UMass lost 63-0 at Penn State, and last week Army lost 62-0 at LSU, thus today a resistible force will meet a movable object.

The Minutemen have lost seven straight games and are careening toward another one or two win season. Next year they play Missouri, Mississippi State and Georgia. It’s the only team in the FBS that’s already 0-3.

After Indiana beat Ohio State in 1951, Buckeyes coach Woody Hayes vowed his team would never again lose to the Hoosiers. So when Indiana took a 7-6 lead in 1976, coach Lee Corso called timeout and posed his team in front of the scoreboard for a photo.

Maybe UMass should try that — if it ever gets a lead.

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It’s not exactly a pipeline but five Williams College alumni are working in the NBA, according to the school’s crack sports information director Dick Quinn. Will Hardy coaches the Utah Jazz, Rafael Stone is the Houston Rockets GM, Duncan Robinson is a 6-7 forward for the Miami Heat, and Mike Greenman and Ed Flynn are video coordinators for the Chicago Bulls and New Orleans Pelicans, respectively. Lastly, Cole Teal works for the Windy City Bulls of the NBA’s G League.

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James Franklin’s record against Top 10 teams fell to 3-16 after the Nittany Lions lost to Ohio State, 20-12. Two trick plays didn’t work, Drew Allar was sacked four times, and a TD was called back by a penalty.

“James Franklin has destroyed Drew Allar’s career,” said radio personality Scott Ferrall, who tunes up his dive-bar vocal chords by gargling with sandpaper. “The kid is scared to death to throw a ball even nine yards. Drew Allar can really play, and they have ruined him to the point where he may as well be a punter.”

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SQUIBBERS: Arizona isn’t having second thoughts about releasing shortstop Nick Ahmed of East Longmeadow. Geraldo Perdomo is batting .278 (10-for-36) with no errors in 45 chances. … The playoffs are all about catching lightning in a bottle. The D-backs have it and the Phillies didn’t. Nick Castellanos finished 0-for-23 and Bryce Harper and Trea Turner were a combined 4-for-35 after game two. … Congrats to Deerfield’s Matt Lindsay who’s joined Jack Arena’s hockey staff at Amherst College. … The Pittsburgh Penguins opened the new season against the Blackhawks, and as soon as the puck dropped Greenfield’s Tom Echeverria texted: “Crosby, Malkin and Letang just broke Jeter, Posada and Rivera record for trio playing 17 years together for the same team.” … Sign posted on a tree off North Main Street in Orange: Please do not feed the Sasquatch. … New Mexico State became bowl eligible this week after it beat La. Tech. The Aggies lost their season opener to UMass. Go figure.  … Let’s hope D-backs vs. Rangers won’t be as short and forgettable as Red Sox-Rockies in ’07. Oh, for Koufax versus Ford on a sunny afternoon at Yankee Stadium. …. The Bruins trailed for a minute and 24 seconds during their 4-0 road trip. …Greg Carvel told Adam Wodon his favorite song is “Achtung Baby” by U2. … If you see Northfield’s Joe and Gail Graveline on Tuesday, wish them a happy anniversary. “We were married on Halloween,” said Joe. “I needed a date I could remember.”

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com