Red Raiders Baseball Triumphs 5-3 in Playoff Opener

It wasn’t easy, but wins seldom are come the postseason and the baseball team will certainly take this one.

No. 8 Melrose did just enough to see off a scrappy Arlington squad, and took a hard won 5-3 victory in the MIAA Division 2 North preliminary round with them off the field at Pine Banks Park last night.

Junior backstop Brett Barbati paced the Red Raider offense, going 2-for-3 with a solo home run and an RBI, while junior Chris Burton knocked in a pair. Conor Tryder and Chris Fimiani both went 2-for-3 as well.

“It was an overall team effort,” Melrose head coach Bill Hirschfeld said. “The pitching was very strong, as usual, and the bats came alive.”

On the ninth-seeded Spy Ponders (11-10) side of the equation, senior captain Mitchell Coiley was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and senior John Calcaterra went 2-for-2.

“That was a tough one,” lamented Arlington head coach Joe Sancinito. “We battled all game ... You fight all year for home field advantage in this situation and (Melrose) definitely used it to their advantage.”

Ryan Hardy took the hill for the Red Raiders, and while the senior captain may not have had his best stuff last night, he did his job and kept Melrose in striking distance until the bats woke up. 

“He threw okay,” Hirschfeld said. “I’ve seen him throw better, put it that way, but he did what he had to and got through it.”

Hardy fired six strong innings, allowing eight hits and three runs and Andy Scocca came on to work the seventh and set the Arlington batsmen down in order.

Junior Jonathan Matsos pitched a complete game for Arlington, taking the loss.

Melrose (15-8) will now face the top team in the bracket, North Andover, on Monday at 4 p.m.

“We’ve never played a game under the lights this year, and we’ve never played on turf,” Sancinito said. “It took us out of our element, but I give credit to Melrose, they came back in a situation when they needed to and hung on to win in the end.”

The Spy Ponders drew first blood in the top of the second, but only managed to push one run across after loading the bases with one away. First Baseman Daniel Fitzpatrick drew an RBI walk to account for Arlington’s run in the frame.

Arlington would add to its lead in the top of the third when senior captain Christian Sleeper broke for the plate on a passed ball and nimbly evaded the tag of Barbati to stake the Spy Ponders to a 2-0 advantage.

Melrose would answer quickly this time.

In the bottom of the inning, the Red Raiders batsmen went to work. Fimiani led off with a single and wound up at third base due to an error, and Runge knocked him in with a single of his own. Runge would advance to second on a throwing error, and senior captain Dan Riordan brought him around with an RBI single, making the score 2-2. 

Burton brought home two more in the fourth, giving Melrose a 4-2 lead.

Arlington added another run in the top of the fifth, and almost pulled level but the apparent tying run was overturned by the umpire, who ruled that Sleeper missed the plate and called him out.

“I couldn’t tell,” Sancinito said. “The plate is actually about an inch and a half below the field, so I really couldn’t tell if he touched it or not. The umpire was looking right at it, so I really didn’t have much argument.”

With one out in the fifth, Barbati stepped into the box and sent a Matsos offering over the centerfield fence, giving the Red Raiders their final margin of victory.

“The pitch right before, (Matsos) fooled me on a curveball,” Barbati said of the at bat. “I knew he was going to try and sneak a fastball by me, and I just hit it right on the button.”

Arlington nearly pulled one back in the top half of the sixth, but Riordan made a great play on a ball that had bounced just inside the foul line in left, and instigated a 7-5-2 out at home plate, as cutoff man Tryder made a quick relay and Barbati tagged out Mitchell Cummings at home, to the delight of the home fans.

“That was huge at the time,” Hirschfeld said. “It was a momentum killer right there and then ... That was huge. Again, that’s the seniors out there making those plays. They do a nice job.”