TURNERS FALLS — After only 4 1/2 innings of work Monday evening, the postgame party for Gary Mullins could at least get started at a decent hour.

Turners Falls breezed through its MIAA Division 5 softball tournament Round of 32 game with a 12-0 blanking of Rising Tide Charter, giving Mullins career victory No. 800 in his 46th season at the helm of the Thunder.

“I'm not taking much credit for this, except for hanging around,” chuckled Mullins. “The kids care enough, we ask a lot of them and their time, and my assistant coaches are fabulous. The community supports us. It's a neat thing to happen, and I've been very, very fortunate.”

Mullins' career record now stands at 800-174, a cool 82-percent winning clip, with the not-so-small matters of 11 state championships and 25 Western Mass. titles included in his eye-popping ledger.

The top-seeded and defending state champion Thunder ran their record to 18-4 ahead of Wednesday's Round of 16 home game against Drury, set to get underway at 7 p.m.

Madi Liimatainen threw the first no-hitter of her senior season Monday with 12 strikeouts. Only two Rising Tide hitters reached base against her.

“It feels really good. I've been kind of going for it all season,” said Liimatainen, who brought a 0.93 ERA into the state tournament. “I've thrown a good amount of shutouts, and faced a lot of teams with some good hitters. But getting those good hitters out is just as good as having a no-hitter, in my mind.”

Rising Tide, coming all the way west from Plymouth, encountered travel difficulties and arrived late, creating a 43-minute delay in getting the game started. The 33rd-seeded Herons wrapped their season at 13-5 off a come-from-behind eight-inning win over Bromfield, 6-3, in the Division 5 preliminary round.

Turners went right to work in its first at-bat with a leadoff double to the base of the left-center field fence by Mia Marigliano, who went to third on a wild pitch and came in to score on a groundout by Marilyn Abarua.

That set the stage for a five-spot in the Turners second, kicked off by Autumn Thorton's deep drive to right-center for a triple and Thorton kept running to the plate when the relay throw got away in the infield. Addy Talbot followed with a double and the Thunder then got three straight walks, to Ameliya Galbraith, Ivy Lopez, and McKenzie Stafford, from Rising Tide's Alanna Flanders to force in a third run. Marigliano lashed a line drive to shortstop caught by the Herons' Shelby Ruth, but the throw to second for a possible double play ended up in right field, allowing Galbraith and Lopez to score.

Stafford moved to third on a wild pitch and Liimatainen helped her own cause by spiking an RBI single to left, good for a 6-0 Turners lead.

The hosts then poured it on in the bottom of the fourth with back-to-back singles by Marigliano and Liimatainen, a fielder's choice out and a two-run double from Janelle Massey. Thorton blooped an infield hit and Talbot reached on a fielder's choice, with Massey scoring and Thorton called out for interference on the basepath.

A pair of wild pitches and a throwing error gave the Thunder three more runs and a 12-0 advantage through four.

Liimatainen struck out five straight batters at one stretch. Ava Botelho drew a one-out walk in the Herons' third inning, but was cut down by Marigliano attempting to steal second. Flanders then reached on an error to begin the top of the fifth, but Liimatainen struck out the next two hitters and got Emily Melby on a line smash to Abarua in center field to end the game in mercy-rule fashion.

“I think we sort of mentioned it over the past couple of weeks,” said Liimatainen of Mullins' impending milestone victory. “But we were focusing on what we wanted to do first. First it was Western Mass., now it's states. After claiming Western Mass., we said ‘look, Coach is one (win) away.’ I'm so grateful to be part of it, because he is such an amazing coach and it's so well deserved.

“Being a part of something so strong as 800 [wins], it's really crazy to think about how many endless hours he's put in building this program.”