Salkeld, Warr Double Team Glenn in 3-0 Victory

For the second time in as many Southern Section 3-A Division baseball playoff games, seniors Scott Warr and Roger Salkeld teamed to lead Saugus High to a shutout victory.

Salkeld (11-0), a 6-foot-5 right-hander, fired a two-hitter and struck out 13 Tuesday and Warr delivered his second consecutive game-winning hit as the Centurions defeated Glenn, 3-0 in a second-round game at Glenn. Saugus (21-4-2), winner of seven in a row, will play Estancia in a quarterfinal game Friday at a site to be determined.

Warr’s two-out single in the third inning provided Saugus with the only run it needed. With Saugus leading, 2-0, in the sixth, Warr snuffed Glenn’s only rally by catching Ray Gutierrez’s fly ball in left field and relaying to catcher J. B. Johnson to nab Albert Amaya attempting to score from third. Salkeld then struck out Jorge Rodriguez to end the inning.

Salkeld, who notched his fifth shutout and 11th complete game, threw 117 pitches, a higher-than-average sum, he said. But he added that he would be able to throw Friday if needed.

“He looked stronger at the end than he did in the middle,” Saugus Coach Doug Worley said of Salkeld, who struck out the side on 14 pitches in the seventh. “They were taking a lot of pitches, so that’s always going to make him throw more.”

Said Salkeld: “I haven’t really thrown that much all year. The coaches have done a great job about when to use me.”

Worley said that he is uncertain who will start Friday. But the likely choice is Warr (7-2), who pitched six-plus innings Friday in Saugus’ 2-0 first-round win over Hesperia. In that game, Salkeld entered in the seventh with runners at first and second and went on to earn his fourth save.

Some Saugus hitting, however, might make the playoff going a little easier. Warr, who smacked a two-run home run against Hesperia, had accounted for all of the team’s scoring for 12 innings before Salkeld’s squeeze bunt scored pinch-runner Andy Nolan in the sixth and gave Saugus a 2-0 lead.

Senior first baseman George Lopata, who was hitless in three at-bats against Hesperia, was three for four, including a seventh-inning, run-scoring double. Saugus collected eight hits after totaling just five against Hesperia.

“I think we’ll all start hitting,” Lopata said. “A lot of guys today were swinging at bad curves.”

Or good ones, depending upon your perspective. Junior right-hander Eddie Navarro (7-6), who entered the game with four consecutive shutouts, struck out six before yielding to reliever Juan Garcia in the fifth. Glenn (15-11), which finished second in the Suburban League, had won 12 of its past 15 games before Tuesday.