Good morning!

Imagine if Turners Falls and Pioneer joined forces to become the Thunder Panthers. Both schools have low enrollments but remain relevant because their respective softball and baseball teams have provided more publicity than any school committee, superintendent or administrator could hope for.

In Lowell on Wednesday, coach Gary Mullins’s never-say-die softball team came back from a 6-0 deficit to beat the Georgetown Royals in extra innings, 8-7. Noting that TFHS beat Georgetown in the ’24 state final, a newspaper that covers Georgetown previewed the game thusly: “This is the rematch they’ve been hoping for… Georgetown has waited 361 long days for this moment.”

Like the Red Sox of ’67, ’75 and ’86, they’ll have to keep waiting. After the final out the Recorder’s Thomas Johnston was able to capture the moment by quoting Mullins: “When they hit the home run to make it 4-0 I thought the door might be shut. We kicked it back open.”

Meanwhile at Westfield State, Kevin Luippold’s Panthers won their fourth straight playoff game by an aggregate 36-7 score by whipping Hopedale, 12-2. “Similar to their reactions after defeating Hopkins in the WMass final and Greenfield in the state quarterfinals, Panther players didn’t let out any yells or screams,” wrote Garrett Cote for the Recorder. “Pioneer understands another team — No. 2 Boston English — still stands in the way.”

Pioneer has a noontime date in Polar Park, the 9,508-seat home of the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox, and a chance to bring home the state title. Win or… win, and it’ll be the thrill of a lifetime.

Those folks from Central Mass. must be wondering what they put in the water out here. On Thursday Hopedale’s softball team was whipped by Greenfield, 8-0, as MacKenzie Paulin spun another masterpiece.

On Saturday, Greenfield will try to slay the dragon in a 1 p.m. showdown with Turners Falls at Sortino Field in Amherst. This is Ali-Frazier, Navratilova-Evert; players will arrive wearing eye black and attitude. Who wins is a tossup but one thing’s for certain, horns will be blowing and sirens will be blaring this afternoon in Franklin County, we just don’t know where.

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Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” section recognizes remarkable accomplishments by amateur athletes across the country. Locals have included Frontier’s Vi Goodnow and Deerfield Academy’s Jim Lindsay and Deerfield native Mike Russo who made the gallery for his soccer coaching prowess at Williams College.

The outcome of Saturday’s baseball game in Worcester will tell if it’s time for another crew to be so honored — Alex McClelland, Ben Werner, Jackson Glazier, Judah Glenn and Hayden Girard.

We’ll let the Joe Buck of Franklin County, aka Jeff Tirrell, explain why: “The basketball team went a perfect 26-0 on the way to the state title and five of the players are on the baseball team. If they run the table that will be matching 26-0 seasons and they will have suited up for 52 straight wins. As Hubie (Shawn Hubert) said on the air the other day, ‘That’s just silly.’”

Other contributors on the Panthers’ roster include Braeden Tsipenyuk, Ethan Quinn, Ben Werner, Brody Welcome, Jackson Campbell, Evan Tsipenyuk and Ethan Mauthe. Sincere apologies for missing anyone, I’ve got enough mothers who want to push me on the subway tracks.

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Reader Jim Still forwarded an article by ESPN’s Michael De Rocco about Liam Coen’s rise from high school quarterback to setting UMass records to assistant coaching jobs in college and the pros to becoming the head coach at Jacksonville.

No one, said Coen, gave him positive feedback until he was the LA Rams assistant receivers coach. One day, Sean McVay poked his head in Coen’s office and told him he was doing a great job.

“I’m like oh, OK, it’s OK to open up and actually be a human being,” said Coen. “All the other places I’d been and how I’d grown up you just did what you’re told. (McVay) taught me a new way of being a leader.”

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There’s an excerpt in Jane Leavy’s “The Last Boy” about Mickey Mantle that tells of the time when Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Hank Bauer, Johnny Kucks and Mantle were celebrating Billy Martin’s 29th birthday at The Copa in Manhattan. Shortly after 2 a.m. they got into it with a group of bowlers after one of them dissed singer Sammy Davis Jr.

The cops came, and so did the press and the front page of the next day’s New York Post proclaimed, “Yankees’ Bauer in Copa Brawl.” 

Owner Dan Topping fined each player a thousand dollars. “I warned you sons of bitches!” he yelled, to which Bauer turned to Mantle and asked, ‘Mick, when the hell did we get a warning?”

“You wasn’t at that party,” said Mantle.

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Weirdest play of the College Softball World Series happened after UCLA’s Morgan Grant crushed a pitch six rows into the bleachers with two out in the seventh inning to tie Tennessee, 4-4. Morgan was mobbed by her teammates and failed to touch home plate until one of them turned her around and pointed at it.

After UCLA protested the call to the umpires, ESPN’s Jessica Mendoza remembered that Dani Tyler had missed home plate after her home run in the ’96 Olympics. “Exact same thing. Some coaches will not let you celebrate at home plate, they make you come near the dugout.”

The crew chief agreed Morgan had missed home plate but added, “The play is not reviewable according to Appendix G.”

Apparently, Tennessee’s catcher would have needed to ask for a new game ball, looked at the ump and stepped on home plate for Grant to have been called out, but it didn’t matter because the Vols won in extra innings.

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SQUIBBERS: There’s a cranberry colored SUV with a small Florida Panthers sticker on the upper left corner of the backglass and is owned by the mother of a Panthers executive. If you see her at a stoplight, ask if the Stanley Cup’s coming to town. … Between innings at Mullins Field, Conway native Lester Reed said he worked at the South Deerfield pickle factory during school vacations: “Sunday mornings we’d work half a day and pretty much load up the trunk with pickles.” … The Rays have pushed their starting times at Steinbrenner Field back to 7:40 p.m. to avoid the heat and tropical afternoon downpours. … The Jets play 14 of their 17 games at 1 o’clock. “How great is that?” said Joe Benigno. Better than kicking off at 3:30 like UMass does every season. … Vikings defensive lineman Jim Marshall died last week at age 87. Marshall played 270 consecutive games but perhaps was best known for returning a fumble the wrong way against San Francisco. According to his obit in the New York Times, after the game Marshall’s teammates asked him to pilot the plane so they’d wind up in Hawaii instead of Minnesota. … Rick Pitino on the possibility of coaching the Knicks: “I can assure you that at 73 I am not coaching 100 games.” … It’s Trump vs. Newsom in LA, and Bedard vs. Felger in Boston. … According to baseball savant, Andrew Benintendi has the slowest arm speed from left field (79.9 mph) and Oakland’s Miguel Andujar has the fastest (92.7 mph). … Saratoga track announcer Frank Miramoti won a trip to Hawaii on the Price is Right last year. … Pete Alonso upped his career HBP total to 94 after Washingtron’s Jack son Rutledge got him on the arm this week. … Seems like a thousand years since Xander Bogaerts anchored Boston’s infield. Bogey’s batting .240 with three home runs and 23 RBIs in 66 games for the Padres who signed him for $25.5 million a year. … NFL analyst Greg Cosell to podcast er Ross Tucker: “The player who is clearly a Vrabel player is [linebacker] Robert Spillane. Two guys they drafted I really like are D- tackle Joshua Farmer from Florida State and defensive end Bradyn Swinson from LSU.” … Mike Repole to a TV reporter after his 3-5 favorite was beaten in the Met Mile at Saratoga: “Well you know how much I like doing a second place interview.”