Softball, Baseball, and Boys Tennis clinch top 10 in first set of state rankings

The MIAA just released its first set of power rankings — see where each Gloucester team lands

ALEENA BROWN, Sports Editor

April 29, 2026

[Photo Courtesy of Dawn Enos and the MIAA]

The MIAA has released its first set of power rankings for the spring season — and for some GHS squads, they’ve hit it big.

The top 32 teams in Division 3 automatically qualify for the state tournament come June. Teams ranked below No. 32 can qualify with a record of .500 or better, where they will have to win the mandatory play-in game to make the first round.

Read below for an insight into each team, their rank, and what that means for the program.

These rankings do not reflect games played after 11:00 A.M. Tuesday.

Softball

Current Record: 10-2

Current Rank: 6th out of 74

Abby Noble has been the standout for the Fishermen Softball team as of late, especially in their takedown of St.Mary’s this Tuesday. [Photo courtesy of Dawn Enos]

The Fishermen softball squad has struggled in its past few contests, to say the least. Their last game was a 6-8 loss to North Reading (ranked 10th in D3), but that close final score doesn’t say much about the innings in between.

It was a struggle on both sides of the ball for the Fishermen — the offense managed just 6 runs on the day (4 of which in the last inning) and 9 hits, while the defense committed a fielding error and had other miscues that proved costly in the end. Abby Noble had a season-low six strikeouts, allowing 11 total hits and eight earned runs.

It certainly didn’t help that the Fishermen had previously played four games in the six days leading up to the game. But at this time of year, coupled with the raw talent this lineup has, problems like that shouldn’t be capable of that type of dismantling.

But good news for the Fishermen — that game’s over and done with. And now, the MIAA has released its first set of power rankings for the 2026 season, and Gloucester has reason to hold their heads high: the Fishermen come in at No. 6 in Division 3.

It’s a ranking that reflects the genuine potential of this roster, even if the recent stretch of games hasn’t shown it. Sitting inside the top ten — and top six at that — out of all D3 programs in the state is no small thing, and it speaks to their overall dominance.

Gloucester will find some familiar faces within the top 10 of these rankings — and at least one name that stings a little more. Apponequet, who the Fishermen tangled with in the Sweet 16 back in 2024, is there. So is North Reading, fresh off their win over Gloucester just days ago.

But the most notable name on that list? Dighton-Rehoboth.

The Falcons are currently the two-time reigning D3 state champions, having captured the 2024 MIAA Division 3 title and backing it up in 2025 with a dominant 7-0 victory in the championship.

And Gloucester knows it firsthand. In the 2025 tournament, Dighton-Rehoboth eliminated the Fishermen in the Elite Eight, 2-1, in an eight-inning battle — a gut-punch of a loss that ended Gloucester’s deepest playoff run in recent memory by the thinnest of margins. D-R went on from that win to beat Nipmuc and punch their ticket to the state final, where they rolled through Greater New Bedford for the championship.

So yes, seeing the Falcons in these early power rankings isn’t surprising — it’s a warning. If Gloucester wants to make a real run this postseason, that rematch might be exactly what’s waiting for them.

The Fishermen have the arms, the bats, and the depth to compete with anyone in their division. Noble, despite her off day against North Reading, has been one of the more dominant pitchers in D3 all season. Opponents don’t get comfortable in the box against her, and that kind of presence in the circle is exactly what separates contenders from pretenders come tournament time.

The schedule won’t get any easier from here, but that’s fine — Gloucester isn’t built for easy. A few days of rest, a reset in the film room, and this team has every tool it needs to climb that rankings board before the next release drops.

No. 6 is a starting point. The Fishermen look like a team with unfinished business, and their goal?

Settle it.

Baseball

Current Record: 11-0

Current Rank: 8/72

The Gloucester Fishermen baseball team doesn’t do anything the easy way — and at 11-0, they’ve earned the right to make it interesting.

Their latest chapter was Monday’s marathon against rival Danvers: a wild, extra-inning war that stretched all 15 frames before Nico Alves broke through with a go-ahead sac fly and Pip Emerson piled on with a double to put the Fishermen ahead for good. Gloucester survived, 6-5, but it wasn’t without a fight — or five, or eight. Danvers collected 15 hits and six stolen bases and refused to go away quietly, and the Fishermen created more than enough chances for their opponents to do exactly that.

Nico Alves’s 15th inning sac-fly and Nolan Aiello’s clutch performance on the mound helped Gloucester slide past Danvers 6-5 on Monday. (Aleena Brown)

That’s the knock on this group right now. As dominant as they’ve been — rolling through the NEC and racking up wins at a historic pace — Gloucester has now been pushed past the seventh inning in three separate games this season. Needing 11 frames to put away Beverly, 10 to dispatch Lynn Classical, and now 15 to shake Danvers is a pattern that has to be ironed out if this team wants to go deep in May and June. The Fishermen are good enough to win those extra-inning games, but they can’t keep living on the edge like that.

The good news is that the MIAA sees exactly what this team is capable of. With the first power rankings of the 2026 season now out, Gloucester checks in at No. 8 in Division 3 out of 72 teams — a testament to an unbeaten record and a roster loaded with NEC-caliber talent from top to bottom.

Last year, this program set the program record for wins, going 19-1 in the regular season and earning the No. 10 seed in the D3 tournament. The Fishermen dispatched North Middlesex in the Round of 32 before running into No. 7 Sandwich, who ended Gloucester’s run with an 8-2 decision in the Round of 16. It stung — but it also set a standard. This program knows what a legitimate postseason run looks like now.

The arms are there. The bats are there. Alves, Emerson, Jaylen Severino, Nolan Aiello, and company have all proven they can deliver when it matters most. The only question left for this team is whether they can start putting games away before the ninth — because in a 32-team postseason bracket, there may not always be a 15th inning to bail them out.

Boys Tennis

Current Record: 6-2

Current Rank: 10/72

The Gloucester boys tennis team has spent most of this spring under the radar — and that might be exactly how they like it.

GHS Senior Captain Julian Nixon returns a forehand. (Dawn Enos)

Coming off a 2025 season that ended in the Round of 32 against the No. 2 seed in the state, the Fishermen are back with something to prove. Now, with the MIAA’s first power rankings of the 2026 season in the books, they’ve made their early statement: Gloucester is No. 10 in Division 3 out of 66 teams statewide.

For a program that spent much of last year rebuilding after losing a talented senior class, landing in the top ten is no small thing. And yet, the biggest challenge this team has faced isn’t the competition across the net — it’s consistency. Translating dominant individual performances into clean team wins across all five positions has been an ongoing work in progress, and that’ll need to sharpen considerably if Gloucester wants to advance deeper into the bracket this spring.

But the ceiling here is high, and last year gave a glimpse of why. Seeded No. 31 in the D3 state tournament, the Fishermen hosted and dismantled No. 34 Pope Francis 4-1 in the preliminary round in what coach Derek Geary called one of the team’s best matches of the season. Freshman Shane Widtfeldt set the tone at first singles with a commanding 6-1, 6-1 victory. Sophomores Henry Harrison and Sam Young teamed up at second doubles for a 6-3, 6-1 win after a key mid-match tactical adjustment. Freshman Trey Bushfield rallied to a 6-1, 7-5 win at third singles, and Julian Nixon battled back from a lost first set to win a 10-7 tiebreaker at second singles. It was a complete, top-to-bottom team performance.

That win sent Gloucester to Martha’s Vineyard, where they ran into the buzz saw that was the No. 2 seed — a team with 15 wins and a home court the Fishermen had never seen — and fell 0-5. It was a tough exit, but not a discouraging one. The young core that showed up when it mattered most in 2025 is a year older, a year smarter, and a year better.

No. 10 in the state is a real accomplishment for a roster this young. But a first-round exit last year — against a team they were supposed to lose to — left questions unanswered. This spring is the chance to answer them.