Buffaloes sweep pair from Floyd, move to 7-1

MELROSE — Melrose’s baseball team has big aspirations for the spring, aspirations of heading north, playing for a state championship. Caleb King was just up there a few weeks ago, coming oh so close as head coach of the Melrose girls basketball team, and serving as an assistant coach for the Melrose boys team that won it all.

King is now coaching a Buffaloes baseball team ranked at the top of Class A, a team that has a real chance of turning those aspirations into a trophy in May. To do that, the Buffs will have to beat district teams like Floyd, who they hosted in a doubleheader on Friday. And if Friday’s 30-run outburst is any indication, the Buffaloes could indeed be in for a fun spring. They beat the Broncos 12-8 in the first game, 18-8 after five innings in the second, rallying from 5-1 and 6-3 holes to win the latter.

“They’re a big rival, too,” King said of Floyd. “Us and Floyd, we’ve been at the top of the district the last three years, one of the top three teams. And beating them is always good. It’s always a good day when we beat Floyd, especially sweeping a doubleheader.”

“It’s good,” said Melrose senior Sterling Sena, who had two RBI doubles in a 15-run fourth inning that completely transformed the second game. “Floyd’s a great team, and to win two in a row is big for us. Each game we have to take seriously.”

Melrose hung on to win the opener by four, finishing it off even with Floyd runners perched on second and third with two outs.

The second game was a wild one in which the Broncos seemed like they might be on their way to a twin bill split. With the game tied at 1 in the second inning, Floyd pieced together a two-out rally that resulted in four runs.

With Javin Chandler — who had drawn a leadoff walk — now on second base, Weston Whitecotton reached on an error, and Conner Martin was plunked to load the bases. Then with Jarret East batting, Chandler scored on a wild pitch, shortly before an RBI single by East RBI made it 3-1 Broncos.

Martin went to third on the play, and after East stole second, Floyd had two runners in scoring position that Patrick Terry drove home with a single, giving his team a 5-1 advantage.

In the bottom of the second, Alden Howard’s two-run homer over the left-field fence sliced Melrose’s deficit to 5-3, but Floyd added a run on Gustavo Herrera’s RBI single in the top of the fourth.

Things were looking good for the Broncos. They had a 6-3 lead, and their starting pitcher Martin had set down the Buffaloes fairly easily in the bottom of the third, a hit batsman the only baserunner he allowed in that frame. He had also collected six strikeouts through the first three innings.

Then came the bottom of the fourth — memorable for Melrose, quite the opposite for Floyd.

It started slowly with a run scoring on a wild pitch, before consecutive RBI doubles from Vicente Hinojosa and Sterling Sena tied the game at 6 with nobody out.

Jordan Jasso then gave Melrose its first lead of the nightcap with a long single that bounced off the center-field fence, scoring Sterling Sena with the go-ahead run.

Two more runs came in when Blake DeVaney reached on an error. One more run each came home on a ground out and wild pitch.

Sterling Sena blasted his second RBI double of the inning to make it 12-6, followed by Tristen Sena’s three-run homer to left, stretching the lead to 15-6. The bases were empty, but were soon again loaded up with maroon jerseys. That too was quite a temporary situation, though, as DeVaney delivered a bases-clearing double to left, giving his team an impressive 18-6 lead.

“It seems like once we’ve seen the pitcher one time with our hitters, we kind of pick up on him,” King said. “We were down 8-0 to Dora, too, almost the exact same inning, and I think we scored seven in that inning. It just seems like once we’ve seen a few pitches and we’ve seen their fastball and their curveball, then we do a pretty good job of finding a good pitch to hit.”

“We just tried to focus up and time the pitcher,” Sterling Sena said. “And just wait for him.”

Floyd battled to avoid a 10-run-rule ending in the top of the fifth, pulling to within 10 on East’s two-out, two-run bloop single. East moved close to scoring the run that would’ve put Floyd down by nine, after he stole second base and grabbed third on a wild pitch.

But Melrose starter Kendal Burnett sewed it up by inducing a ground out, which boosted his team’s record to 7-1.

The Buffaloes’ stunning turnaround in Game 2 was complete. So was their doubleheader sweep.

“It gives us a lot of confidence,” Sterling Sena said. “But we can’t let our guard down. We’ve got to keep playing each game with the same amount of focus as we did today.”