Baker Cooks Up 6-2 Victory

Even though Chris Baker was tired, and even after he gave up two hits and a walk to open the ninth inning, there was no way he was coming out of the game.

Not after Baker made the game his own to win or lose with a sterling pitching effort and a two-run home run to help Newhall-Saugus to a 6-2 victory over Las Virgenes East in an elimination game of the American Legion District 20 playoffs Saturday at Birmingham High.

The game was marred by the ejection of a Las Virgenes coach and player.

The right-handed Baker (4-2) struck out a season-high 13 batters, allowed seven hits and walked three in a nine-inning complete game.

“I was a little tired at the end, but I wanted to finish that thing,” Baker said. “I wasn’t gonna come out.”

Pat Eggleston didn’t want to take Baker out, either, even though the Newhall-Saugus coach made a visit to the mound for a chat with the pitcher after Zach Fields and Josh Goldfield singled and Jarrod Schwartz walked to start the ninth for Las Virgenes East. Darrin Reisman later hit a run-scoring single.

“I just went out there to talk to him, just to see what he was thinking,” Eggleston said. “I wasn’t going to take him out. He pitched a great game. He’ll sometimes have a bad inning, but if he gets out of that one jam, he can play.”

Baker, whose two-run home run highlighted a three-run fourth inning for Newhall-Saugus, struck out Tanner Trosper and Mark Wilson before giving up Reisman’s RBI single. Goldfield, attempting to score on the play, was thrown out at the plate to end the game.

“This was a big win for us,” Baker said. “We’re really starting to get motivated. We played a good game today.”

Newhall-Saugus advances to play Panorama City at 11 a.m. today at Birmingham, with the winner going on to meet Valley North in the District 20 final approximately a half-hour after the end of the morning game.

Las Virgenes East got two hits from Adam Davey, but let its frustration boil over when first baseman Chris Cicuto and assistant coach Randy Lewis were ejected in the eighth inning after Cicuto was hit by a pitch for the fourth time in the game.

Cicuto yelled an obscenity at Baker and was ejected by home-plate umpire Larry Wojchiechowski. Lewis, the first-base coach, protested the ejection and swung his baseball cap in the direction of Wojchiechowski, who said he was struck by the cap across the face.

Wojchiechowski said he filed a report with Los Angeles Unified School District police and plans to press criminal charges.

“That was uncalled for,” he said of Lewis’ alleged action.

Lewis could not be reached to respond to Wojchiechowski’s charges.

Panorama City 12, Valley North 9--John Wilson had five hits and two RBIs, and Sergio Franco had two hits and drove in two runs as Panorama City (24-6) advanced in the playoffs.

Despite the loss, Valley North (23-7) clinched a place in the district final game after beating Las Virgenes East, 12-8, earlier Saturday in a game continued from Friday night.