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By GARRETT COTE

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.

By GARRETT COTE

WESTHAMPTON — As is always the case when western Massachusetts heavyweights Hampshire Regional and Greenfield meet on the softball diamond, high-level pitching was on display Monday afternoon. The Green Wave rely on senior MacKenzie Paulin, a Merrimack commit, while the Raiders typically give the ball to sophomore Ryanne Dubay, who will have her fair share of college offers when the time comes.

By GARRETT COTE

Shawn Durocher spent her weekend mornings and afternoons wheeling a small gas grill behind the clubhouse at Amherst Golf Club, where she would cook hamburgers and hot dogs for those playing. She was in high school and needed a way to make some money, so Amherst’s head golf professional, Dave Twohig, hired Durocher – an Amherst native – to handle grilling duties.

By GARRETT COTE

SOUTH HADLEY — Needing only two points to eclipse 100 for her career coming into Thursday’s contest against Belchertown, South Hadley girls lacrosse senior Ava Asselin wasted no time hitting the century mark. Asselin scored two of the game’s first three goals, the latter coming on a free-position shot where she beat Orioles goalie Riley Nestor low, to accomplish the feat.

By GARRETT COTE

NORTHAMPTON — It was one of those days at the plate for the Hopkins Academy softball team on the road against Northampton on Wednesday afternoon. Any ball that came near the zone, the Golden Hawks got a bat on it, and they raced around the bases to put pressure on the Blue Devils’ defense in each inning.

By GARRETT COTE

AMHERST — There are now a total of 11 players in the transfer portal from last year’s UMass men’s basketball team, as forward Daniel Rivera added to the laundry list this week.

By GARRETT COTE

GRANBY — For the first time in the history of the Granby boys volleyball program, the Rams raised a Western Massachusetts trophy last spring. Granby swept Ware 3-0, and punctuated its first-ever title with a thrilling 28-26 victory in set No. 3 – sending the team and its well-traveled crowd into a frenzy.

By GARRETT COTE

SOUTH HADLEY — Nobody has had an answer for the Amherst Regional boys lacrosse team through three games this season, and South Hadley was no exception on Monday afternoon.

By GARRETT COTE

The Belchertown baseball team has been dying to play baseball. Thanks to a rainout last Monday, March 31, the Orioles’ game against Northampton got postponed. They would have to wait until the end of the week to host Minnechaug for their season opener. Some teams had already played three games by last Friday, but Belchertown was finally suiting up to play their first – a 3-0 loss to Minnechaug.

By GARRETT COTE

HADLEY — Lee Ferguson didn’t just take Hampshire County and western Massachusetts by storm last spring; try the entire state. Ferguson, now a seventh grader on the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School boys tennis team, wasn’t much taller than the net last year. Just a sixth grader then, he wasn’t as physically developed as his opponents on the court.

By GARRETT COTE

WESTHAMPTON — The spring sports season is back, and with that so is Hampshire Regional softball. Since 2020, Hampshire has been in every Western Massachusetts tournament championship, and the Raiders have won three of them. They three-peated from 2021-2023 before losing to Pittsfield in last year’s Class B title game.

By GARRETT COTE

AMHERST — The transfer portal news keeps on coming for the UMass men’s basketball team, as four more players made their decisions on whether or not they’ll be playing in Amherst next season.

By GARRETT COTE

AMHERST — It looks like Frank Martin is going to have quite the roster overhaul, as two more UMass men’s basketball players entered the transfer portal on Tuesday. Akil Watson and Marqui Worthy both decided to depart from Amherst, making it six total players from last year’s team now in the portal.

By GARRETT COTE

AMHERST — There are times when a head coach does everything they can to put their team in the best possible position to win throughout a season and for whatever reason things still don’t work out. It can be recruiting prior to the year, preparation, in-game adjustments, tweaking substitution patterns based on matchups and anything in between.

By GARRETT COTE

AMHERST — Frank Martin has landed his first transfer of the offseason. On Monday morning, Donovan Brown committed to play basketball for the Minutemen next season. Brown played for Division 2 Florida Tech, where he averaged 20.7 points per game and shot just above 36 percent from beyond the arc.

By GARRETT COTE

WESTHAMPTON — Runs were at a premium through five innings between the Hampshire and Frontier softball teams on Friday afternoon, as star pitchers Ryanne Dubay (Raiders) and Raine Wonsey (Redhawks) dueled it out in the circle. Heading into the bottom of the sixth with the game tied at one apiece, Hampshire head coach Brian McGan turned to small ball – the exact way his team scored its first run.

By GARRETT COTE

AMHERST — Well, it didn’t take long for Division 1 men’s basketball players to take advantage of the transfer portal opening on Monday. As of Friday morning, there are already more than 1,000 total D1 men’s players in the portal. Some of them are still playing in the NCAA Tournament right now. Three of them have departed from UMass.

By GARRETT COTE

GRANBY — The Hopkins bats may have gotten off to a slow start on Thursday afternoon, but the Golden Hawks quickly shook off any early-season rust and came alive with seven runs over the final two innings as they went on the road to defeat Granby, 10-0, in the two programs’ season opener.

By GARRETT COTE

AMHERST — For nearly 30 years of his life, UMass offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian has been a football coach. He’s had stints at the high school, collegiate and professional levels, his most recent gig being at Utah – where he was the program’s offensive analyst and quarterbacks coach.

By GARRETT COTE

AMHERST — Tied 2-2 entering the bottom of the eighth inning, a dormant UMass baseball offense needed a spark – its only two runs coming from Albany miscues.