Good morning!
The night before Madi Liimatainen pitched for Turners Falls in front of 2,000 fans at Sortino Field in Amherst, she gave my 12-year-old grandson Carter her softball jersey. They’re cousins, and over the years they’ve bonded.

Carter had worn the jersey before — a win against Narragansett — but not when Turners Falls nearly lost to Georgetown in the semifinals. Softball players are a suspicious lot, and Liimatainen needed to check all the boxes. “You’re my good luck charm,” she told him.

The next day Carter sat on the tarp next to the dugout wearing Liimatainen’s white home jersey — the Thunder wear blue at tourney time — and watched Turners Falls win a 2-1 nailbiter.

A Battle of Pitching Titans

All roads led to Worcester for the states except the D-5 final that matched Liimatainen against Greenfield ace MacKenzie Paulin. Both are righthanders, both wear No. 5, and both are titans of schoolgirl pitching.

Green-clad GHS fans sat on one side of the grandstand and blue-clad Powertown fans on the other. Hundreds more watched from along the foul lines like fans of yore at the Huntington Avenue Grounds.

The sound system played pop standards that ranged from YMCA to Build Me Up Buttercup, and PA announcer Sherry Webb’s low key style was reminiscent of the late great Sherm Feller at Fenway Park. “Now for Turners Falls. Batting first and catching, Mia Marigliano. Maragliano. Pitching and batting second, Madison Liimatainen. Liimatainen…”

Liimatainen would stare in at Marigliano and twirl the ball against her right thigh, then wind up and deliver with force. Paulin’s windup, meanwhile, was as graceful as a ballet dance. Both styles were profoundly effective.

Tied at a run apiece after seven innings, Webb cheerfully informed the crowd, “We’ve got some bonus softball!”

With two out and nobody on in the 10th inning, Liimatainen walked, stole second base and chugged home on Marilyn Abarua’s ground ball into left field. It was her second walk-off hit in as many games. “I was telling myself, ‘Marilyn, you got to do it just one more time,” she told Recorder sports editor Jeff Lajoie.

Sea of Heartbreak

It was a heartbreaking loss for the Green Wave and Paulin, who had matched her Powertown counterpart pitch-for-pitch. The graceful right-hander was injured in the fourth inning after singling and trying to steal second base. Marigliano’s throw was high, forcing Addison Talbot to tag Paulin in the head.

“Wish that didn’t happen so I could’ve been 100 percent for my last game but I did my best,” she texted the next morning. “Our trainers were awesome.”

Paulin was invited to compete in Sunday’s Agganis All Star Softball Game at Fraser Field in Lynn. The game starts at noon. She’ll enroll in the fall at Merrimack College in North Andover and pitch for the Warriors. “Receiving a scholarship and excited to be pitching in the MAAC,” she texted.

The Warriors finished ninth in the 13-team Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference that includes Quinnipiac, Marist, Fairfield and Iona.

Liimatainen chose St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont. The Purple Knights finished eighth this year in the 11-member Northeast-10 Conference that includes AIC, Bentley, St. Anselm and Franklin Pierce.

Pioneer Caps Perfect Season

At Polar Park in Worcester, the Pioneer baseball team took on defending D-5 champion English High School of Boston. The Panthers and Big Blue traded leads into the eighth inning when Pioneer prevailed, 6-5, to cap a 26-0 season.

The Recorder’s Thomas Johnston noted in his game story: “It was the first Franklin County state baseball title since Frontier in 1978.”

Family, friends and much of Pioneer’s staff made the 70-mile drive to the City of Seven Hills, including PVRS superintendent Patricia Kinsella. “Cue the sirens,” she texted. “The boys are bringing the trophy home!”

Congratulations to the players, assistant coach Tom Luippold and his son, head coach Kevin Luippold. “A walk-off in the states has always been a dream for a lot of these kids but the odds are insane,” he told the Boston Globe. “That’s why this game’s so beautiful.”

The Panthers were recognized by Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy, who wrote “Sounds like a feature film for Disney.”

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Raffie Bolts Beantown

Two weeks before Christmas in 1965, the Baltimore Orioles traded pitchers Milt Pappas and Jack Baldschun and journeyman outfielder Dick Simpson to the Cincinnati Reds for All Star Frank Robinson, the NL Rookie of the Year in ’56 and NL MVP in ’61.

Robinson played six seasons in Baltimore. He was named AL MVP his first season — Shohei Ohtani is the only other player to have won the trophy in both leagues — hit 179 home runs, drove in 545 and batted .300.

Pappas had 30 wins in three seasons for the Reds. The Cincinnati Enquirer called it “the worst trade in modern Reds history.”

That brings us to Sunday’s stunner. Let’s see how Rafael Devers does in the city by the bay. At this writing he was 2-for-8 with a double and three strikeouts. Red Sox fans are calling it a money dump, but Mike Francesa said on his Monday podcast: “When you make the owner look bad, you’re on borrowed time.”

After Boston signed Alex Bregman to play third base, Devers became to John Henry what Yevgeny Prigozhin was to Vladimir Putin, a malcontent not to be trusted.

Terry Cushman of the kneejerk Bastards of Boston Baseball said: “At some point this week Craig Breslow is going to need to get in front of a microphone and he’s going to say, ‘I did what was best for the Boston Red Sox,’ and if I was there my urge would be to punch him in the face.”

Reader Paul White watched the Zoom conference and confirmed Cushman’s prediction: “Breslow said it five times in 20 minutes, and (Sam) Kennedy did too. They’re all so smug thinking they’ve got us all fooled.”

One thing’s for sure, this weekend’s three game series at Oracle Park is must-watch TV.

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SQUIBBERS: WFAN’s Joe Benigno on Boston’s choice of haberdashery: “What’re the Red Sox wearing these green uniforms? Stop already.” Wait’ll he sees the yellow unis that make look like utility workers. … The Taunton High School softball team beat Wachusett Regional, 10-4, to win its 56th straight game and fifth straight Division I state title on Saturday. Former Tiger Samantha Lincoln pitched this year at Texas Tech. … The Texas Rangers were charged with a mound visit versus the White Sox on Sunday after the ballboy went to the hill and gave Kumar Rocker three bottle of pickle juice to stop him from cramping. … Regarding last week’s item about locals who’ve appeared in SI’s “Faces in the Crowd” Montague’s Vinny Natale says Pioneer hoops star Adam Harrington made it in 1998. “For some reason AI wasn’t able to tell me the specific issue,”  he added. … A year ago on June 21 the Red Sox were 40-36 and trailed the Yankees by 10 games. Last year they had Juan Soto, maybe they miss him after all. … Next time you’re flying out of Bradley, try the Old School Burger with salad and fries at Bobby V’s for under $25. … Nora Ephron wrote “Summer bachelors like summer breezes, are never as cool as they pretend to be.” You could say the same about the Red Sox management. … Anybody seen Vaughn Grissom? The Red Sox got him from Atlanta for Chris Sale who’s 23-7 for the Braves and has a 1.23 ERA since April 25. As Bob Lobel would say, Why can’t we get players like that?

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@gmail.com