Hutchison Throws Saugus for a Loss, 6-3

Burroughs High pitcher Wes Hutchison wouldn’t say what was on his mind when Saugus took a two-run lead with none out in the top of the first inning Friday of a crucial Foothill League baseball game.

“I was pretty nervous,” Hutchison admitted.

Hutchison, after the shaky first inning, mystified the Centurions in a 6-3 victory that moved Burroughs into a second-place tie with Saugus.

Hart clinched the league championship Friday with a 20-6 victory over Valencia. With two games remaining, Burroughs (14-9-1, 8-5) and Saugus (15-9, 8-5) are jockeying for a second-place seeding in the playoffs.

Hutchison pitched his second complete game in as many starts, holding Saugus to six hits and two earned runs.

The junior right-hander was behind in the count to only six of 27 batters, and 72% of his 92 pitches were strikes.

But after striking out six and shutting down a team with a .334 batting average, Hutchison (3-2) would not share any secrets.

All he needed was a break, which came in the bottom of the fifth, when Matt Hellman’s two-run home run off tiring Steve Lane (5-1) of Saugus gave the Indians a 3-2 lead.

“When it was 3-2, I knew [the game] was mine,” Hutchison said.

Funny, the Centurions thought it was their game.

“After we scored in the first, I guess we thought we were going to win with just two runs,” said Saugus shortstop Nate Wright, a .452 hitter who forgot to swing on a botched hit-and-run play in the fifth.

“We made a lot of mistakes.”

Saugus was leading, 2-1, with one out and runners at first and second, but couldn’t break the game open.

When Wright failed to swing on a hit-and-run play, Colin Butterfield was thrown out going from second to third. Wright grounded out to end the inning.

“I was thinking too much,” Wright said. “I was thinking about hitting it the opposite way. I just froze.”

Hutchison kept Saugus off balance with a good curveball and a sneaky fastball until his offense broke loose.

Burroughs added three runs in the sixth, keyed by run-scoring singles from Eli Albertson and Anthony Fabrizio.

Hellman, a senior center fielder who had three runs batted in, picked a good time to hit his first home run.

Lane was visibly tired and shaking his shoulder, trying to keep it loose, before Hellman hit his 2-and-0 pitch over the left-center field fence.

But Hellman wasn’t aware that Lane was struggling.

“I was just thinking, ‘Drive the ball,’ ” Hellman said. “I swung about as hard as I could.”