Saugus’ Bodeau Makes Pitch for Recognition

Fortunately for Doug Worley, the same day that he gave his top pitcher a rest and his team’s offense acted like it had gone south again, his team played an opponent that has only won three league games since 1986.

Worley, the Saugus High baseball coach, started Roger Salkeld, one of the top pitchers in the Valley area, at first base Tuesday after extensive use in the Colonial Baseball Classic in Florida last week. Saugus did not miss a beat, though, as its No. 2 starter, Jeff Bodeau, struck out 12 in the Centurions’ 6-0 Golden League victory over visiting Burroughs of Ridgecrest.

Saugus managed just two hits--a double by George Lopata in the first inning and a single to center by Tom Dodson in the fifth--and failed to score an earned run against two Burroughs pitchers. Worley implied Centurion batters were still on vacation.

“I was afraid that after we came back we’d be flat and we were,” Worley said. “I’m glad our first game was at home, we were ‘Upset Special’ today. It looked like our timing was off. The last four or five games we faced hard throwers and it’s a big difference coming back.”

Burroughs (1-12, 0-4 in league play) committed six errors, including three in a row in the third, the second of which allowed Salkeld to score from second and make the score 5-0.

“What can I say? We stink. We stunk today. We’ve stunk all year,” Burroughs Coach Mike Stoner said about his team’s fielding problems. “We’ve averaged four errors a game. We had nine in our opener.”

Saugus (10-4, 4-0) scored three runs in the second on two walks and an error. Right fielder Bill Warr led off with a walk, advanced to second on a groundout and scored when Burroughs starting pitcher Joe Norris threw Darrell Davis’ sacrifice bunt into right field for a three-base error. Davis scored on a groundout two batters later and Mike Osment scored on a wild pitch to make the score 4-0.

Burroughs collected just four hits off Bodeau (5-2), including three in the fourth.