WESTFIELD — The No. 1 Pioneer baseball team is no stranger to the MIAA Division 5 Final Four. Including this spring, the Panthers have earned a trip to the state semifinals in four consecutive seasons — however they failed to punch their ticket to the championship game in each previous instance.

That all changed on Wednesday afternoon at Westfield State University.

Trailing No. 4 Hopedale 1-0 entering the bottom of the second inning, Pioneer evened the game on a Braeden Tsipenyuk sacrifice fly that scored Brody Welcome. After Ethan Quinn held the Blue Raiders scoreless in the third, the Panthers opened the game up. A four-run frame boosted Pioneer in front 5-1, and it never looked back.

The Panthers added six more in the bottom of the fifth and one in the sixth to defeat Hopedale 12-2 and book a trip to Polar Park in Worcester for the D5 title game.

“It’s a different kind of emotion that I feel right now, and it’s all due to these guys,” Pioneer head coach Kevin Luippold said. “These guys are all so happy, and their happiness rubs off on me. It’s just a great feeling. These guys have put in such hard work this year and the last four years. You get over this hump, it’s a cool feeling. They’re already talking about going into Polar Park and just having fun.”

Similar to their reactions after defeating Hopkins Academy in the Western Massachusetts Class D final and No. 8 Greenfield in the state quarterfinals, Panther players didn’t let out any yells or screams.

While beating the Blue Raiders advanced it one step closer to its goal, Pioneer still understands another team — No. 2 Boston English — still stands in the way.

“It feels great, but like I’ve been saying, the job’s not done,” Quinn, who pitched six innings and gave up just four hits and one earned run, said. “We’ve been at this for four years, and we finally got to the finals. It feels amazing, but we’ve got more work to do.”

“We’re ready to go play at Worcester,” senior Ben Werner added.

It didn’t come without a few bumps in the road. In the first inning, the Panthers made an error and put a Hopedale runner on board, but Quinn worked around the miscue. In the second, a throwing error put a runner on and he came around to score on an RBI single. Quinn was not charged with an earned run.

Tsipenyuk’s sac fly tied it up, and all momentum swung in favor of the Panthers from there. Alex McClelland reached on an error to lead off the third inning, then Quinn singled and stole second to put both runners in scoring position with no outs.

Ethan Mauthe hit a sacrifice fly, Evan Tsipenyuk ripped an RBI double, Brody Welcome singled, Werner hit into a fielder’s choice to score a run and Jackson Glazier singled in Werner to round out the inning’s scoring.

“I was very impressed with everybody, because in big games like this, typically the team that settles in first wins them,” Luippold said. “We started with two errors and it allowed them to put pressure on us, but we knew we were going to hit and that we still had 18 to 21 outs to play with.”

Two innings later, Pioneer put another crooked number on the board. Quinn plastered a leadoff double, Mauthe walked and two batters later Welcome knocked a double that scored Quinn and put runners on second and third.

Then it was Werner’s turn to lace a double, plating both runners for two of his four RBIs in a huge day hitting out of the eight-hole for the Panthers.

Pioneer’s bottom of the order (Welcome, Werner and Glazier) combined for six hits (two apiece) and six RBIs in what was a well-balanced attack at the plate.

“We obviously have such good hitters at the top, but somebody’s got to hit at the bottom,” Werner said. “And we have great hitters one through nine. Everyone can do a job and come up with big hits. Everyone produces on our team.”

Quinn went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and a walk, McClelland drove in a pair of runs, had one hit and scored a run, Mauthe (two runs) and Evan Tsipenyuk (one run) each tallied one hit while Jackson Campbell, Braeden Tsipenyuk, Werner (two) and Welcome (two) all crossed the plate in the win.

Every Pioneer hitter reached base at least once and all but one scored a run.

On the mound, Quinn made the most of his start. He had his curveball working and fooled Blue Raider batters with it all game long. He said he was “very confident” in his stuff on Wednesday, and it showed. Glazier came in for one inning of relief and pitched a scoreless top of the seventh to close the game out.

“Ethan was immaculate,” Luippold said. “We knew he was going to throw a gem and he delivered like always. Everyone has his back and they know if they put up a couple runs, we’ll be in every single ball game. He’s always going to give us a chance.”

Pioneer has won games where it had to rely on its stellar selection of pitchers, lean on its deep lineup with capable hitters from top to bottom, and win both pretty and ugly.

The Panthers are a battle-tested team ready for any challenge thrown their way, including second-seeded English in the state final – which is to be played at Polar Park in Worcester (home of the WooSox) at a date and time to be announced.

“The nice part about this group is that whoever it is we’re facing on the mound, we know we’re going to attack our pitch,” Luippold said. “That’s one thing that these guys bought into over the course of the season. It proves to them that hard work pays off.”