Melrose hands Warriors 13-0 defeat
Published in the April 21, 2017 edition
THE MELROSE Red Raider baseball team are 3-2 after back-to-back wins over Wayland and Lexington. (Donna Larsson photo)
By LUC SULLIVAN
MELROSE— In a crushing 13-0 victory, the Melrose Red Raiders voided the Wayland Warriors in spectacular fashion during a non-league game on Monday, April 17 at the Morelli Field, then followed that up with a shiny 1-0 shutout over Lexington on Wednesday to improve to 3-2 in their early season.
On Monday, The Red Raiders started their Wayland game strong on defense by shutting down the Warriors. Melrose’s Nick Cordeau put points on the board with a triple that brought home Joe Stanton, and moments later showed great situational awareness, scoring on a pass ball. The Raiders were up 2-0 at the start of the second and things just got better. John Casparriello’s pitching for Melrose was on point all day and Andrew Maguire showed great hustle getting under a low liner to left field that ended the Warriors at bat and preventing a first run.
Melrose started heating up in the second as a John Casparriello base hit was followed up by a Connor Crovo double. With two men on, a Joe stanton single brought home Casparriello and immediately after, a Nick Cordeau sacrifice fly batted in Connor Crovo, making the score at the end of two Melrose 4, Wayland 0. Melrose defense continued be unrelenting in the third, making all the right plays as first baseman John Sullivan had to abandon his base to field a grounder, but sent the ball swiftly back to pitcher Casparriello, who seamlessly covered first for the Warrior’s third out.
The score remained at Melrose 4, Wayland 0 until the bottom of the fourth when Casparriello got things started off with a double to deep left and several walks by the Wayland pitcher gave the Raiders a free run and left the bases packed. A few pitches later, Cal MacDonald base hit sent Joe Stanton and Connor Crovo home leaving the score at Raiders 7, Warriors 0. The onslaught would continue as Nick Cordeau was batted in by John Sullivan and Liam Crovo would bring home Andrew Maguire and Cal MacDonald.
Melrose scored three more runs on the fourth bringing it to Raiders 13, Warriors 0. The consistency of the Raider bats brought the backups in by the fifth who also continued to stick it to Wayland. Mike Dreske looked good on the mound with a couple of strikeouts and by the end of the fifth the score was still at Melrose 13, Wayland 0- where the score would remain for the remainder of the matchup.
On Wednesday, Melrose’s Matt Muscarella threw a gem and Melrose shutout the Lexington Minutemen, 1-0 at Morelli Field. Further details were not available at press time. On Friday, Melrose hosts Wilmington for a league game at 3:45 p.m. at Morelli Field in Melrose.
