Torrid Saugus Lights Up Canyon in 14-5 Foothill League Runaway

It was cold at Canyon High on Friday but visiting Saugus apparently didn’t feel a chill.

The Centurions (11-4-1) were experiencing a warming trend. They scored 14 runs on Thursday and they branded the Cowboys for another 14 on 17 hits in a 14-5 Foothill League victory.

Saugus’ bats struck early. With one out in the top of the first inning, Darren Hoevel doubled and Danny Cato hit a fly ball into the bitter breeze that was blowing toward left field. It cleared the fence 335 feet away and Saugus was off and running, 2-0.

The Centurions led, 6-0, after three innings, then they scored five times in the fourth. Cato opened with a single, Brandon Hernandez walked, Nick Lawson singled, Steve Rogers singled and, after Colin Butterfield struck out but reached safely on a wild pitch with two out, Nate Wright singled and Hoevel doubled.

Ten batters had come to the plate and Saugus was cooking, 11-0. Scott Willis, Canyon’s sunburned coach, had also heated up by game’s end.

“I don’t care if it’s snowing,” he said. “You can’t just let anybody walk in here and beat the hell out of you.”

Canyon fell to 3-8-1, 1-3 in league play, while Saugus stayed a game behind first-place Hart at 3-1. Canyon starter Lucas Solomon (1-2) couldn’t get out of the first inning. He allowed three runs while retiring only two batters.

Relievers Ricky Engbrecht (five runs on five hits in 2 1/3 innings) and Pat McDermott (three runs, five hits in one inning) weren’t any better. Hernandez gave Saugus the strong pitching it was looking for, capping a week in which the Centurions were 5-0-1 in a five-day span. They opened it with four games in the Coachella Valley tournament.

Hernandez (2-2) allowed four hits and five unearned runs in six innings and joined the offensive spree by going three for four.

Six Saugus batters drove in runs. Six had two or more hits. Cato was four for five, finishing the week with 12 hits and three home runs.

“All that offense kind of helps,” Hernandez said. “All I had to worry about was throwing strikes.”