Salkeld Keeps Chatsworth Bats at Bay, 5-3

Roger Salkeld on an off day is still a notch above Chatsworth batters.

Or so he was Wednesday, holding off two late-inning rallies and striking out 11 Chatsworth batters to lead Newhall-Saugus (Santa Clarita) to a 5-3 win in a District 20 American Legion baseball game at Chatsworth High.

Salkeld (5-0) pitched out of three jams and only allowed one earned run.

“I would not say Roger had a very good day,” Newhall-Saugus Coach Tom Pedersen said. “He was a little below average, but the kid still throws hard and is a quality high school pitcher.”.

Chatsworth cut a 5-1 Saugus lead to 5-3 in the sixth inning when Salkeld, who will be a senior at Saugus in the fall, balked in one run and Rich Aude drove in another with a single. Chatsworth, threatening to get more, had Aude on third with one out, but Salkeld fielded Eric Niece’s grounder and tagged out Aude at home for the second out. He struck out Vince Simili to end the inning.

An inning later, Chatsworth (12-4) had runners on first and second and its cleanup hitter at the plate with two out, but Salkeld struck out Ty Powell looking to end the game.

“I was a little mad, so I got pumped up,” Salkeld said.

Salkeld struggled early as Chatsworth loaded the bases with one out in the first. He caught John Haselbusch looking at a fastball for the second out, then retired Aude on a groundout to first.

“You want to get runs in that situation, but Roger came back tough,” Pedersen said. “That’s rough on a team.”.

Salkeld settled down to retire 12 batters in a row through the next four innings.

“I usually get off to a slow start,” Salkeld said.

Saugus (13-4) took a 1-0 lead in the second when Tom Dodson led off with a single, moved to second on an errant pickoff attempt by Pierre Amado, and scored on Jared Snyder’s single up the middle.

Saugus extended its lead to 4-0 in the fourth on Dodson’s solo home run and George Lopata’s two-out, two-run single.

“That was a big hit for us,” Pedersen said.

Chatsworth broke up Salkeld’s shutout when Derek Wallace tripled and scored on Greg Biley’s groundout.

Dodson and Snyder each had two hits for Saugus. Rex McMackin, Powell, Aude and Wallace had the only hits for Chatsworth.