FLOWERY BRANCH — Buford used its red-hot offense to batter three Flowery Branch pitchers in a 14-2 rout of the Falcons Tuesday in Region 8-5A action at the Hog Mountain Sports Complex.
With the victory the Wolves (17-9, 7-0 Region 8-5A) remained unbeaten in region play and moved one step closer to setting up a potential showdown with defending state champion Loganville.
But first, Buford coach Stuart Chester said they can't look past Wednesday when they take on the Falcons (11-13, 4-3) who are fighting for a playoff spot themselves, at Gerald McQuaig Field for a second straight day. The Wolves will then face Loganville on Friday and Monday in a home-and-home series.
“Anytime Buford and Flowery Branch play it’s always a playoff atmosphere,” Chester said. “We still have one more to go against (Flowery Branch) and I’m sure they’ll be ready. But we do have a tough finish with the top two teams behind us in four consecutive games. We’ll think about Loganville after (Wednesday).”
While the Buford offense was banging out 14 hits, Buford starter Ramsey David was stymying the Falcons offense. He allowed just two runs, only one earned, on just four hits and fanned nine in six innings, his longest outing of the season.
“Ramsey did a great job. He got up near 100 pitches and gave us the most innings all season,” Chester said. “We made some plays behind him to give him some help. That’s what we need at this time of the year.”
Meanwhile, Falcons starter Zander Sechrist, who came in unbeaten at 2-0, matched David early retiring six of the first seven Buford hitters.
The Wolves tried to get something going early as Griffin Price walked with one out and eventually moved over to third. But Sechrist got a pair of ground outs to third to keep it scoreless.
Anthony Grutadaurio led off the bottom of the first for the Falcons with a bloop single to right against David. He later stole second with one out and AJ Gonzalez walked. But David got TJ Armstrong to ground into a double play to end the inning.
Sechrist was rolling retiring five straight but ran into major trouble in the third. Patrick Walken homered to right to lead off and then Sechrist walked Grant James. Austin Turner doubled to right to put runners at second and third with no one out. Griffin Price made it 3-0 one batter later with a two-run double to center over the outstretched glove of the Falcons’ Grant Lackey. Georgia Southern-signee Noah Ledford knocked in Price two batters later for a 4-0 Buford lead.
Buford added a run in the fourth when Walken singled with one out and scored on a RBI single from Turner.
Sechrist (2-1) would not make it past the fourth as Andrew Curtin came on to start the fifth for the Branch. Sechrist gave up five runs on six hits and walked three with two strikeouts.
Curtin did not fare any better lasting just 1 2/3 innings surrendering five runs on four hits. Carson Plumadore took over for Curtin in the sixth and also was hit hard giving up four runs on four hits in 1 1/3 innings.
Buford did most of their damage with runners in scoring position. The Wolves were 9 of 18 with RISP with 12 RBI for the game. Flowery Branch was 0 for 4 with RISP for the game.
Flowery Branch finally got on the board when Nick Kezios singled with one out. He moved around to score on a pair of errant pickoff attempts to pull the Falcons within 5-1 after five innings.
Buford put the game out of reach, however, with a five-run sixth inning, highlighted by a two-run single from Brandon Jolliff. Turner and Griffin Price also had RBI hits in the big inning.
The Falcons got a run in the bottom of the sixth on a RBI double from Armstrong driving in Gonzalez from first to trim it to a 10-2 Buford lead.
The Wolves pushed it to 14-2 after a four-run seventh as Turner, Evan Place, Ledford, and McIntyre all had RBI in the inning.
Chester felt his group, which has scored double-digit runs in six of its last eight games, is starting to click when it matters most.
“At this point in the season you want to get hot at the right time,” he said. “Our lineup has been getting better and better the last couple of weeks and has been swinging the bats well. We just want to keep getting better each game.”
