The Boyd-Buchanan baseball team has turned into quite a scoring machine in the last few days.
The Buccaneers finished second to the Silverdale Seahawks in the District 5-A regular season, but that didn't seem to matter as they won their third straight 5-A tournament title in impressive fashion Wednesday afternoon at Silverdale.
The Bucs scored 19 runs for the second in the last three games as they collected 15 hits and four home runs, including two grand slams.
Wednesday's outburst came on the heels of Monday's 17-10 victory over the Seahawks when they had 16 hits and smashed six round-trippers.
Senior pitcher Seth Rogers was able to help himself quite a bit as he had three hits on the day, including a single in the first inning, a two-run homer in the second and a grand slam in the fifth.
He also earned his fourth win in six decisions after allowing six runs on six hits in five innings while striking out six and walking five.
"They walked Colby (Morgan) the last time to get to me and I made them pay with a home run. They did the same thing today and I made them pay again. One was a curve and the other was a fastball, but they were both in my zone and I crunched them.
"I've had a lot of no decisions pitching this season, but I was able to throw a lot of curves today, but I got a little tired at the end," he added.
Rogers left with a 14-6 lead as Casey Pate came in to pitch the final inning, but E.J. Matthews led off the sixth with a solo homer while Morgan wrapped up the scoring with a grand slam to deep left-center.
"That's 55 runs we've scored in the last three games, so we've had a good approach at the plate," Buccaneer coach Taylor Gilley said in somewhat of an understatement after team pictures had been taken.
"We've been hitting the ball well during this tournament and I think we're peaking at the right time. We wanted to go ahead and win it today so we can rest for a few days. We're having fun as it feels good to win this tournament for the third straight year," he added.
The top of the Boyd-Buchanan lineup was quite impressive as the first five hitters combined for 11 hits, 18 runs scored and 14 runs batted in.
Rogers was the leader with three hits, three runs and six RBIs while Cade Evans, Cooper Hodge, Morgan and Brandon Willingham all had two hits apiece. Willingham had the big blow in the first with a three-run double and he added another two-bagger in the second.
Evans scored five times while Hodge and Morgan both crossed the plate four times.
Matthews is the seventh man in the lineup and he too had three hits and a pair of runs batted in.
Silverdale coach Jonathan Adcock is just happy that the season continues for his team.
"They have to be the hottest hitting team in town right now as they scored a bunch of runs against us. We made some mistakes defensively and they made us pay, but I was really proud of the way we battled back.
"We were down 9-0 in the second inning and could have quit at that point, but these guys never feel like they're out of it. But we just have to put this one behind us and get ready for a trip to Nickajack where we'll play either Marion County or South Pittsburg on Monday," Adcock said quietly.
Alex Gonzalez was the only Silverdale player with two hits and one of those was a leadoff double in the fifth. He later scored on a sacrifice fly by Sawyer Junkins.
Michael Hawkins and Gonzalez both had run-scoring singles in Silverdale's four-run second while Tyler Mossburg drove in another with a double.
Hayden Spencer and Mossburg both had a double as those were the only two extra-base hits for the Seahawks.
While Rogers was the winning pitcher, Dylan Bryant was the loser as allowed eight runs before being replaced by Michael Weiss with one out in the second.
Boyd-Buchanan left four runners stranded while Silverdale had nine.
The Bucs are now 21-4-1 overall while Silverdale is now 17-10.
BOYD-BUCHANAN 541 045 -- 19 15 2
SILVERDALE 040 021 -- 6 7 4
Rogers, Pate (6) and Hodge; Bryant, Weiss (2), Hannah (5) and Spencer.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)