It’s a big weekend ahead for six Franklin County baseball and softball teams, all of which are looking to lock up a spot in the Final Four of their respective MIAA tournament brackets.

On the baseball diamond, Greenfield and Frontier both went on the road and pulled off upsets in the Round of 16 while Pioneer held serve as the No. 5 seed to move into the quarterfinals.

In softball, Franklin Tech pulled off a road win in the Round of 16 to create an all-Turners Falls quarterfinal round Saturday night between the Eagles and the Thunder, while the defending state champion Green Wave are back in a position to repeat with a home game Saturday at 2 p.m. against No. 8 Drury.

Let’s start with that all-Powertown matchup in the MIAA Div. 5 quarterfinals. No. 3 Turners Falls has cruised into the quarters with wins over Bristol County Agriculture (15-0) and Lenox (9-2), and the Thunder are finding their rhythm at the perfect time of year. It wasn’t looking good to open the season, with back-to-back losses to Easthampton and Hopkins, but the young Turners squad has grown leaps and bounds throughout the spring and will enter Saturday night’s game on a five-game winning streak which includes a win in the Western Mass. Class. D title game over Hopkins.

Madi Liimatainen has been lights out in the circle throughout the postseason for the Thunder, throwing a five-inning no hitter against Bristol County and scattering four hits against the Millionaires. Through two games the sophomore has struck out 23 batters.

If Liimatainen continues to perform the way she has, it’ll set up a pitcher’s duel on Saturday night at Gary Mullins Field (7 p.m.), as Hannah Gilbert has been equally lights out this postseason for the Eagles. 

Gilbert, also a sophomore, has been on a tear since the state vocational tournament. She got that started by throwing a no-hitter and striking out 14 in a 5-2 win over Westfield Tech and followed it up with a 12-strikeout, two-hit performance in the state vocational championship game against Tri-County — a 5-0 Franklin Tech win.

In the state tournament Gilbert allowed two hits and struck out eight in the Eagles’ 3-1 win over Bourne in the Round of 32 and in Pittsfield on Wednesday to take on No. 6 Taconic, Gilbert struck out 12, scattered four hits and didn’t allow a run to advance Tech into the quarters with a 6-0 win. The No. 11 Eagles were the lone team in the Div. 5 bracket to pull off a seeded upset in the Round of 16. 

Franklin Tech should have added confidence heading into Saturday’s crosstown showdown. It won’t be the first game of the season between the two clubs, as the Eagles walked away with a 9-3 victory when the squads met back on May. 8. That game saw the Thunder knock six hits off Gilbert and Tech got four hits off Liimatainen, but the Eagle hits produced the runs, with Kylee Gamache knocking in three runs on two hits. 

Turners will be looking to make it to the Div. 5 semis for the second year in a row while Tech hopes to avoid a second straight quarterfinal exit. The winner will take on either No. 2 Mount Greylock or No. 7 Hopkins, which play their quarterfinal game on Sunday in Williamstown. 

If there were any thoughts of a championship hangover for Greenfield, those questions were quickly laid to rest. The Green Wave have looked dominant since postseason play has begun, winning all three of their Western Mass. Class C tournament games by 10-plus runs to take home the title. In the state tournament, Greenfield run-ruled both No. 33 Holbrook (12-0) and No. 17 Georgetown (13-1) to earn a spot in the quarterfinals. 

Like Turners and Franklin Tech, the Greenfield’s ace, MacKenzie Paulin, has been dominant throughout the tournament. The sophomore struck out 10 and allowed one hit against Georgetown while racking up 12 strikeouts and one hit against Holbrook. That comes on the heels of a Western Mass. tournament where Paulin struck out 20 against Tech in the semis and 19 against the Mounties in the finals.

It’s not just pitching that’s gotten Greenfield to where it is. All nine players in the Green Wave lineup are capable of producing at the plate, as evident with Greenfield scoring double-digit runs in 15 of its 23 games this season.

The No. 8 Blue Devils clawed their way into the quarterfinals. Drury opened its season by winning its first 12 games but has cooled off down the stretch, going 3-5 in its final eight heading into the state tournament.

Drury pulled off a comeback to defeat No. 25 Mohawk Trail in the Round of 32 (9-8) and taking on No. 24 Oxford in the Round of 16, walked away with a 4-2 win to earn the right to travel to Vets Field. The game was originally scheduled for Friday night but was postponed until Saturday due to weather.

Blue Devils catcher Brooke Bishop will be one to keep an eye on, as she has four home runs on the season. First pitch for that quarterfinal contest is slated for 2 p.m. on Saturday at Vets. The winner will take on either No. 4 Tahanto and No. 5 West Boylston, who play on Sunday. Greenfield beat West Boylston to win its state championship last June.

Last year it was the Frontier softball team who made a run to the final four as the No. 21 seed. Can it be the Greenfield baseball team this spring?

The 26th-seeded Green Wave are the lowest-seeded team remaining across all five baseball divisions heading into the quarters, and in fact, they’re the lowest remaining seed in any sport and any division across the state.

It wasn’t looking good for Greenfield heading into the MIAA Div. 5 state tournament, as it had dropped its last eight games heading into it. A young Greenfield team has put it all together this postseason, however, and has received excellent pitching performances in its three straight tournament games to reach the quarters.

Michael Pierce got the start against No. 39 Atlantis Charter in the prelims and allowed just one run in eight innings work, with the Green Wave squeaking out a 2-1 win in extras. 

Caleb Thomas won on the hill on Sunday, where Greenfield went on the road to face No. 7 Ware, which had just taken home the Western Mass. Class D title, in the Round of 32. The sophomore scattered just three hits and struck out five while the Green Wave allowed one unearned run to knock off Ware with a 3-1 victory. 

The long bus ride to Westport to take on the No. 10 Wildcats did nothing to deter Greenfield. With the help of some great defense, Pierce allowed just three hits and struck out six while the Green Wave capitalized in the second inning at the plate to pull off a 4-2 upset. 

The toughest task of the bunch will be coming on Saturday for Greenfield, as it travels down to the Cape to take on No. 2 Bourne. The Canalmen (15-7) earned a win over No. 34 Old Colony (15-2) and erased a three-run deficit to defeat No. 18 Maynard (5-3) to reach the quarters. Aiden Elmore homered for Bourne in the win over Maynard while Damon White, Jack Ferreira and Ryan Sullivan are players to watch on the Canalmen. Sullivan has been Bourne’s ace all season, but pitched in the win over Maynard, putting his eligibility for Saturday in jeopardy. 

Greenfield wasn’t the only team to head out and pull off a road upset on Wednesday. Frontier gained confidence after capturing the Western Mass. Class. C title last Wednesday and that has carried over into the state tournament, where it scored six runs in the sixth inning to pull away with a 9-3 win over No. 19 Upper Cape Cod on Sunday in the Round of 32.

Liam Skribiski-Banack got the ball on Wednesday in the 14th-seeded Redhawks’ Round of 16 matchup against No. 3 Oxford and the ace delivered, holding the Pirates to a mere two runs to allow Frontier to squeak out a 3-2 eight-inning victory. Freshman Brady Poreda came through with the game-winning hit.  

It’s been pitching that has propelled Frontier in its five-game win streak. The Redhawks haven’t allowed more than three runs in any of those five games. That’ll be put to the test against No. 6 Ayer Shirley, which scored 10 times in its win over No. 27 Mystic Valley in the Round of 32. The Panthers then got a complete game shutout from Kevin Surette to lead them past No. 22 Sutton, 3-0, in the Round of 16. 

The Redhawks will square off with Ayer Shirley on Sunday at 3:30 p.m., with the winner earning a trip to the Final Four to face the winner of the Bourne-Greenfield game.

Pioneer rounds out the local teams playing this weekend, and the Panthers are looking to avenge their Final Four loss from a season ago. 

It was Hopedale that knocked the Panthers out last year, but Pioneer will get a chance to get even on Saturday, as it travels to Hopedale to take on the No. 4 Blue Raiders at 2 p.m. 

The two teams will look much different than they did a season ago, with Hopedale graduating four players from last year including Will Parker, who is now playing at Army. That’s not to say the Blue Raiders should be taken lightly — they are currently 15-5 and come in on a six- game win streak including wins over Blue Hills (4-3) and Drury (5-2) in states — but it’s not the same team that knocked off the Panthers 17-2 a season ago. 

Pioneer also isn’t the same team as last year. The young group has grown a year older, and Hugh Cyhowski and Ethan Quinn have established themselves as worthy aces on most teams with what they’ve done on the hill all season. The Panthers are plenty focused heading into this matchup, especially after seeing their unbeaten season end in the Western Mass. Class D finals against Ware. 

Expect to see Cyhowski on the mound for Pioneer, as he pitched all six innings in a 10-0 win over No. 28 O’Bryant to open the tournament while Quinn tossed five innings on Wednesday in the Panthers’ 6-3 victory over No. 12 Millis. 

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