Saugus’ Mood Blue After 10-3 Loss : Antelope Valley Spoils Centurions’ Towel-Day Promotion

Saugus High wanted to make the most of a golden opportunity on its home field Tuesday and try to recapture a share of first place in the Golden League by defeating Antelope Valley.

Trailing the first-place Antelopes by a game, the Centurions enlisted the vocal support of seemingly every available student and armed each with powder blue hand towels bearing the words “Luv ya blue.” The plan was for the Centurion faithful to twirl the towels with every Saugus surge.

They didn’t do much twirling because Saugus didn’t do much surging.

Antelope Valley brought along a busload of linen-less but highly vocal fans, enough to fill the first-base side of the field. Backed by their moto-rooters, the Antelopes won the game--and the war of words--10-3, to move two games ahead of the Centurions.

“They did a lot of yelling over there with their towels,” Antelope Valley Coach Jack Donnelly said. “Hey, that’s fine. They’ve got a lot of towels they can cry in.”

Said sophomore right-fielder Jeff Bishop: “We just don’t pay attention to that stuff. We just come out here with a baseball team and a lot of pride and maturity.”

Actually, Antelope Valley (11-7, 9-1 in league play) and its fans were not short on shouts, either. But they had reason to carry on.

Bishop’s two-run blast to deep center field in the in the sixth inning capped a three-run inning and turned the game into a rout. It was the Antelopes’ only extra-base hit of the game to go with nine singles off starter Jeff Bodeau.

The Centurions (13-7, 7-3) contributed to their demise by committing four errors and stranding eight baserunners--six in scoring position.

Bodeau (6-4) struck out five to increase his Valley-area leading total to 90. But he walked seven--three in Antelope Valley’s two-run fourth inning--and bounced a high curve off Brandon Newcomb’s helmet in the second.

“Right now it’s ‘Do we want to give up and settle for second place, or come back?’ ” Bodeau said. “I think we can bounce back.”