Saugus American bows out on last stop

Ending a run for an historic program, the Saugus American Little League squad concluded its Sectional Four campaign with a 5-2 loss to Andover American at Beverly this past weekend.”We were a long shot to keep going,” Saugus manager Brian Pettenati said on Sunday. “We wanted to play spoiler.”Saugus had a chance to do just that in the top of the sixth, when Michael Mabee came up with the bases loaded and two out. Mabee hit a shot that the third baseman grabbed to end the game.Saugus starter Jimmy Alcott was in a 1-0 game for a while before Andover got to him in the third and fourth innings.”We had our best pitcher going,” Pettenati said, “but we couldn’t hit that kid (the Andover pitcher).”Going into the game, Pettenati said his team was “pretty much” eliminated, although it was still afloat mathematically.”We would have had to mercy-rule Andover, and other things,” he said. “Acton-Boxborough had to mercy-rule Danvers.”While the season is now over, Saugus did have a District 16 title to celebrate, its first in nine years. The last time it went this far, it went all the way to the Little League World Series.”That just shows you how much of a team that was,” Pettenati said of the 2003 edition. “It took nine years to win the district (again).”Rich Tenorio can be reached at [email protected].