It’s once again that time of the season. Some teams are about a quarter of the way through their spring sports schedules, the cold weather seems to be in the rearview and high school notebooks are back! We began doing a weekly basketball notebook in the winter, as well as an all-winter sports notebook, and both were well received. So, here we are again with a spring edition.

Each week, the Gazette will run a baseball/softball notebook in print on Thursday, and a notebook highlighting the rest of the spring sports on Friday.

Let’s start off the first notebook of the spring by discussing perhaps the biggest storyline in softball across western Massachusetts: the sizable number of dominant pitchers taking the sport by storm.

Hampshire County aces shining bright in April

Especially at this level, if a team has a commanding arm with speed and accuracy and clean fielding behind it, they have a chance to make a deep run in the postseason regardless of how good their offense is. If they find a way to scrape across a couple of runs, it can often be enough for a star pitcher.

Well, in Hampshire County in 2025, several teams have that strong force in the circle. Hampshire has Ryanne Dubay, South Hadley has Ella Schaeffer, Hopkins has Cassandra Dion, Frontier has Raine Wonsey and Northampton has Greta Lepore, just to name a few. And stretching outside of Hampshire County to other neighboring schools, Greenfield’s MacKenzie Paulin, Turners Falls’ Madi Liimatainen, Franklin Tech’s Hannah Gilbert and Westfield’s Shea Hurley are all fantastic pitchers as well. And if you look back to last year, Easthampton had Rosie Follet and Amherst had Sofia Holden – another pair of talented arms.

The year 2025 seems to be the year of the pitcher in softball. So many times in big tournament games, which team comes out on top often comes down to which one can get to the other squad’s ace first.

For example, in Monday’s game between Hampshire Regional and Greenfield, Dubay and Paulin were dealing early and often. But the Raiders decided to play small ball to get some runners on base and force the Green Wave defense into making quick decisions under pressure. It allowed Hampshire to put up one run in the third, one in the fourth and two in the fifth to come out with a 4-0 win. Each team recorded just four hits, but it was the Raiders that got on the board first and applied the heat to Greenfield.

To emphasize just how stellar pitchers in the Pioneer Valley have been through mid-April, here’s a quick note about each one.

Dubay out-dueled Hurley in Hampshire’s win over Westfield on April 11, striking out 15 Bombers batters – a career high for the sophomore.

Schaeffer is on pace for 1,000 career strikeouts, an astonishing feat. She came into the season with 796 career strikeouts and fanned over 300 batters in 2024. In a win over Monson on April 10, Schaeffer recorded all but one out (20 out of 21) via strikeout.

Dion is another pitcher with a milestone on the horizon, as 500 Ks are likely in her future at some point this spring. The sophomore threw a no-hitter against Athol on April 11, striking out eight and walking only one.

Wonsey split duties with Ashley Taylor a season ago, but took the reins as the full-time starter as an eighth grader this spring. Frontier has won five in a row and Wonsey typically floats around 10 strikeouts a game.

Lepore is new to the varsity scene as an eighth grader, and she has helped the Blue Devils fill their biggest hole from a year ago: pitching. Lepore most recently recorded a one-hit shutout in a win over Mahar.

Paulin is going to Division 1 Merrimack next year, Liimatainen just punched out her 1,000th career hitter last week, and Gilbert also recorded career strikeout No. 500 last week despite only pitching regularly for less than three full seasons. Those three may be members of Franklin County, but they all regularly play Hampshire County opponents – which helps in preparation for the postseason.

It’s been a joy to watch many of these aces work their magic in the circle this spring, and because of their prowess, their teams are guaranteed to have a chance come playoff time.

Easthampton baseball set to play in professional ballpark

Similar to the Belchertown baseball team, the Eagles have a date and a time stamped for a trip to Hartford, Conn. to play in Dunkin’ Donuts Park – the home of the Hartford Yard Goats, the MLB Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. Easthampton will play Ludlow on Monday, April 21 at 3:30 p.m.

The Orioles defeated Longmeadow 3-2 on a walk-off winner during their trip to Hartford, so the Eagles are hoping Dunkin’ Park can be just as friendly on Monday. Easthampton started its season 0-4, but three of those losses were competitive games that could have gone either way. It picked up win No. 1 of the spring against Monson, 4-2, on April 14.

Jake Kostek, Anthony Incampo and Christian D’Onofrio are some of Easthampton’s leaders this season, and they’ll hope to guide the Eagles to their second win of the year. Easthampton has not won five games in a single season since 2022.