Div. 5 baseball: Shorthanded Hopkins Academy ends season with 5-0 loss to Monson in Round of 32 (PHOTOS)

HADLEY — Without two of its top four batters, the Hopkins baseball team couldn’t crack a run in its 5-0 loss to Monson in the Round of 32 during the Division 5 MIAA State Tournament on Monday.

Chace Earle and Matthew Vassallo were each unavailable for the No. 6 Golden Hawks due to recently-sustained injuries, leading to the No. 27 Mustangs’ upset victory, which put an end to Hopkins’ season earlier than anticipated.

“I was without my three hitter, my four hitter, they combined for over 50 hits this year between the two of them, 40-50 RBIs, combined for four or five home runs between the two of them,” Golden Hawks head coach Dan Vreeland said. “Not having their bats in the lineups… we threatened all the time, we just didn’t have the key hit. That’s the big piece of what we didn’t do today. Executing defensively, didn’t look great [either], but the big piece was we had batters in the right position to score and nobody to knock them in. It takes a lot of wind out of your sails too when you got two guys who you’ve relied on all year, trust all year, know what they’re capable all year. I only really found out they weren’t going to be ready to go this morning.”

The Golden Hawks hung tough for most of the game, keeping the score deadlocked at 0-0 until the top of the sixth inning when Monson broke through. Multiple fielding miscues from Hopkins turned a tight, scoreless battle into a 4-0 deficit in the blink of an eye in the penultimate frame.

The Mustangs (12-9) brought home another run with an infield RBI single during the seventh inning to make it 5-0. In the bottom half of the frame, Hopkins threatened to spoil the Mustangs’ shutout with two runners on base with two outs, however a flyout from Nate Rickles ended the comeback bid.

“I thanked all the seniors, their contributions are innumerable, so I appreciate that, but also telling all the other guys what I tell everybody when we don’t reach the ultimate goal,” Vreeland said on his message postgame. “The ultimate goal is a state championship and we’ve only done that once in the last 36 years, so you tell them the same thing every year. ‘Let it sting, let it fuel you for future years, keep working hard in the offseason.’”

These two teams met less than two weeks ago during the first round of the Western Massachusetts tournament and Hopkins won handily, 9-0.

Despite losing six seniors to graduation this spring, Hopkins has reasons to be optimistic for 2026 as Earle, Vassallo and Tucker Russell — who didn’t allow an earned run to Monson on the mound on Monday — highlight the talent coming back for the Golden Hawks next season.

“My whole core is young,” Vreeland said. “Pretty much that was my message all year is that on the surface we look like and old team when you say ‘oh they got six seniors and five juniors,’ but it was really one and a half playing seniors. One of seniors had a torn ACL, three of them played JV as juniors, so the core of my team is juniors and sophomores.

“We’ve got a bright future,” Vreeland added. “I tried to remind them that. It’s hard in the moment but remembering that, keep working hard because the future is going to be better than what we just saw.”

Alex West and Logan Bye were the two seniors in the lineup Monday for Hopkins. West caught the entire contest and Bye was the Golden Hawks’ designated hitter.

Hopkins’ final record shook out to 12-10, plus an appearance in the Western Mass. Class D final. Pioneer Valley took that game, 4-2, at Mackenzie Stadium.

Monson advanced to the Round of 16 where it’ll face No. 10 Mount Everett Regional.