Salkeld, Warr Throw Estancia Off Balance

Saugus High Coach Doug Worley did his homework. Estancia, the Centurions’ opponent Friday, had reached the quarterfinals of the Southern Section 3-A Division baseball playoffs by virtue of late-inning rallies. Twice the Eagles had trailed entering the sixth inning and both times they won.

So Worley aligned his pitching accordingly. Scott Warr, a left-handed, off-speed pitcher, started and left after four innings with a two-run lead.

Then came the heat, Roger Salkeld, whose fastball has been clocked at 90 m. p. h. Salkeld allowed only two singles and struck out seven batters over the final three innings as Saugus advanced to the semifinals with an 8-2 victory at Estancia.

The Centurions will play Ontario, an 11-2 winner over Mountain View on Friday, in the semifinals Tuesday at a site to be determined.

“We wanted to keep them off-balance, so we showed them two different types of pitchers today,” Worley said.

At first, it didn’t appear that Warr (8-2) would fulfill his part of the plan. After being handed a 4-0 lead, Warr barely survived the bottom of the first inning. His first 10 pitches were balls and Sean Nichols smacked the second pitch Warr threw for a strike into right field for a run-scoring single.

But Warr settled down and allowed only two more hits before Salkeld (11-0 and an 0.55 earned-run average) made his appearance.

Saugus (22-4-2) built its lead quickly. With runners on first and third with one out in the first, J. B. Johnson singled to center for a 1-0 lead. After a walk to Warr, Salkeld grounded to Nye, but the Eagles (21-7) were unable to turn the double play and the Centurions had a 2-0 lead.

Gabe Javage walked Trevor Rice to load the bases, then threw away a pickoff attempt and two more runs scored.

Saugus added four more runs in the seventh, three on a home run by George Lopata.