Gutsy effort helps Saugus 14s overpower Wakefield

SAUGUS – They started the tournament off by shutting down Lynn on a rainy Friday night at World Series Park ? and finished it off with a dominating pitching performance against Wakefield.The Saugus 14-year-old Babe Ruth all-star team was clearly – and emphatically – the class of District 1 over the last two weeks, and now it has the trophy to prove it. The final score was 6-1, and – as manager Ed Groark said afterwards – it was all about pitching and defense.”I told them before the series started that hitting wins games, but pitching and defense wins championships,” Groark said. “And that’s what we got ? championship defense and championship pitching.”Saugus will play in the EMass 14-year-old championship series later this month in Norwood. The pairings for the tournament have not been announced.It should come as no surprise that the Saugus Babe Ruth program has emerged as one of the best around. The Saugus National Little League has won the last three District 16 titles, and many of the players on this team were on those Nats teams, including Danny Groark and Ken Runge.Though Scott Enos pitched a tidy enough game (nine hits, three walks), he kept Wakefield off the board with the help of some memorable infield play. Wakefield had the bases loaded in four of the seven innings and only came away with one run.In the second, with the bases loaded and none out, Enos struck out Joe Pacitto and got Anthony Fabiento to hit into a 6-4-3 double play. In the third, again with the sacks full, he got Dan Looney to pop to short.In the fourth, when Wakefield scored its lone run (on an infield hit by Joe O’Neill), Enos loaded the bases again, with one out, and got out of it with a strikeout and a popup. Finally, in the fifth, Wakefield jammed them up with one out and, trailing 2-1 at the time, was poised to grab the lead and send the two teams into a winner-take-all game tonight.But there will be no such game. Pacitto grounded into a force play to third baseman Ty Kennedy, with the throw coming home. Then, Kennedy picked a hot shot off the ground, almost like a hockey goalie, and tagged third in plenty of time to get the final out.It was reminiscent of one of baseball manager Earl Weaver’s great quotes ? the one about crawling out of more coffins the Bela Lugosi.Most of this stellar defense was played with Saugus nursing a tenuous 2-1 lead. Saugus got on the board in the top of the first when Enos singled to right and ended up on third on a wild pitch and a passed ball. Runge knocked him in with a grounder to second.Saugus made it 2-0 in the third when No. 9 hitter Steven Blaney led off with a single, stole second, went to third on Groark’s bunt single, and scored on a safety squeeze by Enos.Wakefield scored in the fourth, and it stayed that way until the top of the sixth when Saugus scored four runs to put it away.”We hadn’t hit much all game,” said Groark, “but we put together a good inning there.”Enos led off with a single and stole both second and third before Runge drove him in with a double. D.J. Webster’s single scored Runge and made it 4-1, and Mike Karpenko, pinch-running for him, went to third on Kennedy’s infield hit and scored on Kurt Rodrigues’ single. Rodrigues scored on a grounder to short by Nick Freehling.