SAUGUS — With 18 seniors on this year’s squad, the Saugus baseball team was hoping to make a run deep into the CIF Southern Section Division 5 playoffs, especially knowing they had rattled off nine consecutive wins to close the regular season.
The Centurions quickly found themselves trailing against visiting Calvary Chapel of Santa Ana on Friday and couldn’t climb out of the early hole, eventually falling 6-2 in the first-round matchup.
“We finished the regular season winning nine in a row, we beat the league champs (Hart) twice, we bounced back from starting the year 0-7,” said Saugus coach Carl Grissom. “A lot to be proud of. But, you know, this is going to hurt. This is going to hurt for a long time. Especially when you have dreams with this bunch that we could have went really far. But baseball’s a funny game. It can go any way. It didn’t go our way today.”
The Centurions (16-13) surrendered four runs on just one hit in the top of second, then allowed two more runs in the third.
“That didn’t bother me, falling behind,” said Grissom. “I felt like we still were in the game, but then they added the two. That hurt.”
Saugus pushed their two runs across in the bottom of the fourth when senior Mason Maher drilled a two-run single.
Thanks to pitcher Senior Gio Garfalo buckling down, the Eagles (14-12) were unable to score again, keeping Saugus’ comeback hopes alive.
“He gave us a chance,” said Grissom. “He was huge. He’s been like that all year. He always keeps us in the game and we’re going to miss him.”
Saugus ended a pair of Calvary rallies with double plays in the fourth and fifth innings.
“When we scouted these guys, we knew they could hit,” said Grissom. “We made some big plays to stay in it, but credit to them for putting themselves in position to score and finding ways to get it done. Those double plays gave us some life but we needed a couple more plays to win today.”
Despite multiple base runners in each of the final four innings, the Centurions were unable to push any runs across to close the gap. They left at least one runner in scoring position in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
“When we had guys in scoring position and didn’t get anything, that’s when you kind of see the writing on the wall,” said Grissom. “I’m just exceptionally proud of this group, though. Not many teams are going to come back from an 0-7 start to have the season we did.”
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