AMHERST — As crazy as it may have sounded at the beginning of the season, at this point already, there’s just one step left for the Georgetown softball program to take.
Just one more game the team has yet to win in its history.
Unfortunately, the earliest that step can be taken is 2025.
On a beautiful Saturday afternoon on the campus of UMass Amherst, the No. 4 Royals looked across to the other dugout at Sortino Field, and saw the program that their striving to become. It will admittedly take over a decade to match the likes of No. 2 Turners Falls, which won its 11th State Championship by shutting out the Royals, 5-0, in the Division 5 title game. But the fact that the Royals were even here so soon, playing in a championship game with only one senior and no juniors on the roster, speaks volumes to how quickly the program has developed.
We’ve tried to drive home this message all year, and it only got louder as the season progressed.
Please, for the rest of the CAL: Don’t! Overlook! These! Royals! Anymore!
“The message isn’t going to change,” said Georgetown coach Jay Santomassino. “We’re going to tell them that we’re going to be back here, in this exact situation, every single year. That’s our plan.”
Yup, that should be the plan.
And it’s funny how plans can change almost overnight too, huh?
Georgetown softball making a State Championship game … it wasn’t suppose to happen this year. The Royals had basically the same roster last spring — of course a year younger — and made history by qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 2015. They not only broke the eight-year-long postseason drought, but also won a game and made it to the Division 5 Round of 16.
That set the standard.
So heading into this season a year older, but still with seven sophomores and two freshmen in the starting lineup, the goal was to make it one step further. Maybe, just maybe, when that nucleous of Maddie Grant, Ava Fair, Gillien Figueroa, Mackenzie Riley, Jenna Johnson, Maddie Cirone and Cora Robinson — along with current freshmen Ellie Barbarick and Talya Mariani — got to be juniors in 2025, they’d grow to the point of making the program’s first ever title game. Then by their senior year in 2026, they’d be ready to take it.
Well, folks, the Royals are at least one full year ahead of schedule.
“Last year we said to them to prepare to be in the tournament every year, except every year we take a step forward,” said Santomassino. “Last year we made the Round of 16, and this year we were here in the Final.
“So there’s one more step to take.”
And to be fair to Georgetown (15-7), its first ever championship game was a loss to a state powerhouse.
CAL softball fans might vaguely remember the name Madison Liimatainen.
As an eighth-grader back in 2021 — when there were only three divisions across the state — she was the starting catcher on a Turners Fall team that beat Amesbury, 5-4, in the Division 3 State Championship game. She went 2-for-4 with four RBI in that win, helping the Thunder earn — at the time — their 10th state title.
Three years later, she’s now the team’s star junior.
Liimatainen has been Turners starting pitcher for the past three seasons, and has incredibly already eclipsed 900 career strikeouts according to an article published by The Greenfield Recorder last week.
And that dominance showed itself on Saturday.
In the top of the first inning, Fair and Riley both walked, and a single by Grant loaded the bases with two outs. But after getting into the only danger she would face all game, Liimatainen retired 19 of the final 20 batters she would face, with a two-out walk to Johnson in the top of the seventh being the only other baserunner allowed. That single by Grant was the only hit she allowed, and for the afternoon she finished with 14 strikeouts.
“She’s was unbelievable,” said Santomassino. “You’re not going to win with a zero on the scoreboard. It would have been nice to make something of that first inning where we had the bases loaded, that was our shot. Before (Liimatainen) got into her groove, that would have been our shot to get on the board and put a little pressure on them.”
But the Thunder (20-5) escaped, and wasted no time getting on the board.
In the bottom of the first, Addison Talbot lined a two-out single to right field that scored courtesy runner Ivy Lopez. Then in the second inning, the Thunder broke the game opened with four unearned runs after a leadoff error. Liimatainen helped her own cause with a two-run single, then both Talbot and Janelle Massey walked with the bases loaded to make it 5-0.
Which, needless to say, was plenty of support for Liimatainen.
Despite the setback, Grant threw a solid game for the Royals. The sophomore scattered seven hits with seven strikeouts, and only one of the runs she allowed was earned.
“1-through-9, (Turners) can hit the ball,” said Santomassino. “So for Maddie to hit her spots, keep them off balance, she did great. At times it felt like she was going to get overwhelmed, but she held it together. And for a sophomore to be in that spot, and to fight to the very end, I give her all of the credit in the world.
“She’s going to be our leader for the next two years.”
A two years that will certainly be filled with plenty of promise for Georgetown.
Turners Falls 5, Georgetown 0
Division 5 Finals
Georgetown (15-7): 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0
Turners Falls (20-5): 1 4 0 0 0 0 x — 5
Georgetown (0): Ellie Barbarick c 3-0-0, Ava Fair 1b 2-0-0, Maddie Grant p 3-0-1, Gillien Figueroa 3b 3-0-0, Mackenzie Riley rf 2-0-0, Jenna Johnson cf 2-0-0, Tayla Mariani ss 3-0-0, Maddie Cirone lf 2-0-0, Ava Ruggiero dp 2-0-0, Cora Robinson 2b/flex 0-0-0. Totals 22-0-1
Turners Falls (5): Mia Marigliano ss 4-0-1, Madi Liimatainen p 2-0-1, McKenzie Stafford cr 0-1-0, Holly Myers c 3-0-1, Ivy Lopez cr 0-1-0, Janelle Massey rf 3-0-1, Addison Talbot 2b 3-0-1, Anne Kolodziej 1b 3-0-0, Madison Dietz 3b 3-1-1, Marilyn Abarua cf 3-1-1, Autumn Thorton dp 1-1-0, Ella Kolodziej lf 0-0-0. Totals 25-5-7
RBIs: TF — Liimatainen 2, Talbot 2, Massey
WP: Liimatainen (7 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 14 K); LP: Grant (6 IP, 1 ER, 7 Ks)