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McMahon strikes out 13 with 3-hitter for unbeaten Golden Tornados (3-0)
The script for this one is suspected to have been stolen from a volume of Ripley’s “Believe it or Not” stories. How else can you explain this?
Heading into the bottom of the first extra inning – the eighth – Malden High baseball had managed exactly no base hits at the plate. No, nada and zero. Somerville High pitchers Kevin Clark and Ian Born had combined to shut down Malden, which had scored 30 runs total in its first game. Malden had been able to scratch out two runs in the first inning on a collection of walks and errors, but then was shut down by Clark (five innings, 10 Ks) and Born (two-plus innings, six Ks).
Meanwhile, Malden was getting the same kind of pitching from senior ace righthander Brandon McMahon. Through seven complete innings pitched, McMahon had pitched perhaps his best game ever as a Malden Golden Tornado, scattering three hits with a whopping 13 strikeouts.
Somerville tied the game with two runs in the top of the fifth and a stinging loss loomed for Malden when the visitors rallied for a go-ahead run (on no hits) in the top of eighth. But the Tornados refused to give in. Malden first loaded the bases with one out when McMahon and sophomore catcher Bo Stead drew back-to-back walks off the Somerville reliever Born. The Tornados then loaded the bases when sophomore Brayan Jose beat out a bunt when Born slightly bobbled the pickup.
Next up was Tim Melton, with a chance to be “The Guy.” The senior outfielder worked the count to two-and-two, then delivered the biggest hit of his Malden career, dumping a soft liner straight up the middle, just in front of the outstretched glove of the Somerville centerfielder, dropping right in front of him. It was also the only base hit Malden had gotten on the frigid afternoon at Pine Banks Park.
In raced McMahon, followed by the game-winning run in the person of Stead. Malden was the new owner of a walk-off win, and a wild celebration followed.
The victory was Malden’s third straight to start the season – in just seven days since the season began – rolling to a 3-0 record (2-0 Greater Boston League [GBL]). It is Malden’s best start in over a decade for baseball and nearly equals its win total for all of last season.
The walk-off win was well-deserved for Malden, according to McMahon, a four-year varsity player who has now struck out 23 batters in his first two starts on the mound for Malden. “This team has worked so hard to get ready for the season and it has showed so far,” said McMahon, who has already committed to attend and play collegiate baseball for Salem State University next fall. “We knew Somerville was a good team and this would be a close game, but we were never going to give up, even when they took the lead.”
Malden had opened the game with two runs off the Somerville starter. Jake Simpson drew a walk and McMahon hit a grounder to third base which drew an errant throw, leaving McMahon safe at first on the error. Simpson alertly motored to third, which drew another throw off the mark, bouncing into the left field net, allowing him to score the first run of the game on the second Somerville error of the inning.
McMahon went to third on the second error, and after Stead waited out a walk to keep the inning alive, Jose struck out on a Clark curveball, but the ball skipped away from the Somerville catcher on the third strike. Jose sprinted to first safely on the passed ball, and McMahon did the same from third, scoring to make it 2-0, Malden.
That was it for a long time, offensively, for Malden as Clark set down 14 of the last 15 Tornado hitters he faced through the next four-plus innings, allowing only one Malden baserunner (Melton on an infield error in the fourth) and striking out nine more. After Somerville tied the game at 2-2 on back-to-back hits by Born (single) and Foscatera (double), Malden threatened in a big way in the bottom of the sixth, but it did not score. Simpson was hit by a pitch by the left reliever, Born, to start the Malden sixth. Brandon McMahon drew a walk to extend the threat. Stead’s attempt at a sacrifice bunt was popped to the pitcher for the first out, and Jose struck out. Melton drew a walk to load the bases with two outs, but Born came back to strike out Aidan Brett to quench the Malden rally.
McMahon had perhaps his best clutch inning in the top of the seventh when he stranded runners at second and third – one out – by striking out Somerville’s #3 and #4 hitters in order, Brown looking and Jared Antonelli swinging to keep it tied up, Born struck out the Malden side in order in the bottom of the seventh to send the game to extra innings.
Somerville squeezed out a run despite some solid relief work on the mound by Simpson, but Malden’s walk-off rally in the bottom of the eighth sent the Tornados home with an instant-classic win.
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TORNADO TIDBITS: Malden is off until Monday when it returns to action at Pine Banks Park, hosting GBL rival Chelsea in a doubleheader. Game One, at 3:30 p.m., will be the Championship Game of the Second Annual Golden Tornado First Pitch Classic. Game Two will be the scheduled regular season between the two teams, 20 minutes after the first game concludes… Malden will stay home next week for its third game of the week when it hosts GBLer Lynn Classical on Wednesday, April 12 at 4:00 p.m… After Wednesday’s win, Malden was the only team in the state to have won – or even played – three games… The Tornados’ season opener, a 12-2 win over visiting Salem Charter Academy in the first game of the Tornado First Pitch Classic, was played last Thursday, March 30, the earliest start date in school history for Malden High Baseball and believed to be the first time a Tornado team has ever played a regular-season game in March… The three wins for Malden so far nearly matches its entire win total of last year’s season, when an even younger Tornado team struggled to a four-win campaign… Malden High senior pitcher Brandon McMahon has totaled back-to-back double-digit strikeouts for the first time in his four-year varsity career – 10 against Salem Academy Charter High School last week and 13 on Wednesday versus Somerville, 23 total in 12 innings of work on the mound… Junior captain Jake Simpson (1-0) picked up the win in relief for Malden with his one inning of work, after Malden rallied for the walk-off win in the bottom of the eighth inning… Regular starting centerfielder, junior captain Zeke Noelsaint, missed Wednesday’s game with an injured ankle, which happened in the previous game, a 14-4 win over Everett on the road in the GBL opener for both teams.
