Kennedy, Hansell Win Pitching Duel : Fighting Irish Score 1-0 Victory Over Saugus in Nine Innings

The Southern Section 3-A division championship game Saturday at Dodger Stadium was advertised as a “King of the Hill” duel between pitchers Greg Hansell of Kennedy High School and Roger Salkeld of Saugus.

Salkeld, ranked as the sixth-best prep pitching prospect in the nation by the publication Baseball America, had struck out 162 batters with a 90-mile-an-hour fastball and had allowed only nine earned runs in chalking up 12 victories without a loss. Hansell had struck out 113 batters and completed 10 games en route to a 12-1 record.

Salkeld and Hansell engaged in an arms race for eight innings, each allowing four hits and striking out nine. Finally, in the bottom of the ninth inning, Hansell scored on a wild pitch and Kennedy had won its first baseball title in the school’s 25-year history with a 1-0 extra-inning victory.

Salkeld threw a wild pitch on a 2-1 count to Kennedy’s No. 8 hitter, Don Cochran, ending a classic matchup between two of Southern California’s best prep pitchers.

Kennedy (26-5) capped a year of transition in which the Fighting Irish developed into one of Orange County’s premier programs under Coach Chris Pascal after struggling to win three games in 1984.

Saugus (23-5-2) was shut out for the first time in 1989 as Kennedy’s pitching staff recorded its 20th consecutive complete game. It also marked the second time Saugus has lost a championship game in the past four years; in 1986, Artesia beat Saugus, 9-4, in the 2-A title game.

“This was a classic championship game,” Pascal said. “Greg went with Salkeld pitch for pitch. Greg’s value just went up for next week’s draft.”

Hansell (13-1) has signed with the University of Nevada-Reno on a football scholarship, but said the odds are 50-50 whether he will be catching footballs in college next season as a tight end.

“I’m getting excited about the (amateur baseball) draft,” he said. “It feels good to beat someone with the reputation like Salkeld, but I didn’t really beat him; our team beat their team.”

Indeed, it took four excellent defensive plays by Kennedy to hold Saugus scoreless. Reserve left fielder Todd Murakami made the most significant play of the game, reaching over the box-seat railing in left field to catch a foul ball by Saugus’ Scott Warr in the seventh inning with two runners on and nobody out.

“It was an unbelievable catch,” Pascal said. “The play of the game. He makes that play and then we get a double play to get out of the inning, otherwise the game’s over and they win.”

Murakami’s catch was so dazzling, it appeared to stun the Saugus baserunners, who failed to tag up on the play. Afterward, Saugus Coach Doug Worley said he sensed the game was lost when his runners froze.

“We’re screaming bloody murder when our guys didn’t tag,” Worley said. “When that kind of stuff happens, you start to get bad vibrations. I bet that was the first time they have made a play like that all season.

“I didn’t think things went very well for us. I don’t want to think sour grapes, but if some of those balls we hit go an inch or two more the other way, we win the game, 1-0, in seven innings.”

The game of inches certainly didn’t go Saugus’ way in the decisive ninth inning. Hansell led off with a high chopper to third that Saugus third baseman Trevor Rice fielded cleanly but threw wildly to first and Hansell went to second on the error.

Kennedy catcher Scott Wood followed with a bunt between the mound and third base that Salkeld initially tried to field and then decided to watch as Rice couldn’t make the play. Kennedy had runners at first and third with nobody out and Salkeld appeared to be unnerved.

Cochran, a .190 hitter who had gone zero for three in the game, came to the plate with the Kennedy fans on their feet. Salkeld, visibly tiring and struggling to keep his control, threw a fastball outside that Saugus catcher J.B. Johnson never got a glove on and Hansell scored easily to win the game.

“It was a straight fastball,” Salkeld said. “I just had a bad release point on it. It was just a breakdown in my mechanics. That was the longest I’ve ever pitched.”

Hansell, who opened the game with six consecutive strikeouts, wasn’t sure how much longer he could have gone.

“I knew if we didn’t score in the ninth, I was going to have to go back out there and pitch,” Hansell said. “I wanted to end it.”

By scoring on the wild pitch, Hansell ended the game and emerged as king of the hill.