Up next on our schedule was a team that had made the playoffs in 1990. A double-header against Newhall-Saugus. But wait a minute! They changed their name! They were now called “Santa Clarita.” But it was the same group. In fact, the next season (1992), they changed their name back to “Newhall-Saugus.”
Well, whatever you want to call ’em…Verdugo ALWAYS had their number! We beat them in ’90 at the infamous “Saugus 500″…..swept ’em in ’92 (including a first-round playoff victory)…..and swept ’em on this day as well. They probably kept changing their name around to make it look like we didn’t beat ’em as often as we did!
This was a huge sweep. It moved us to 12-6. In Legion, every year there are a couple of teams that can get into the playoffs as a “wild-card team.” Usually, a wild-card team will finish in second place in their Division with a very strong won-loss record (as we did in ’92 when we went 20-3 and came in second place).
However, the teams in our Division were kind of bunched up and it was clear that there was not going to be a wild-card team from our Division. We had to win the Division or we were out! San Fernando was making a nice run and had a slight lead on us, but we were still right in the thick of it. We also had a double-header scheduled with them on the last day of the season. I just wanted to still be in the hunt when that day came, and ultimately DID get my wish.
The first game was all Chili. Chili threw a three-hit shutout with no walks and four strikeouts. He threw only 74 pitches.
BullOxen led off the fourth with a double, and Moose doubled him in. Moose moved to third on John Rogers’ base-hit, and then scored when Chili reached base on an error. Robb Turner doubled and Mike Parker chipped in a single. We only had five hits but we didn’t need much the way Chili was throwing that day. The final score was 2-0.
In the second game BullOxen got the start. Our bats came alive in the second game. We sprayed it around pretty good. We won 10-5.
We drew 10 walks at the plate….had eight singles….and took advantage of several errors by the Santa Clarita defense.
Bull was getting tired. He threw a good four innings. So who came in to throw the final three innings? CHILI!!!
That’s right. Chili came in to throw the last three innings for us.
John Rogers and Brett Miller led the offense with two hits apiece.
Bull, Moose, Parker, and Chili all had base-hits.
I give our guys credit. We had those two blowout losses. It was gutcheck time and we dug down and grinded out four-in-a-row. There were four games left and we were right there.
We had a BIG game coming up in Palmdale. Bull had mowed down 20 of their hitters the first time we played and I had exchanged words with their coach. Now we were going up to their yard. Anything could happen. And quite a few things did happen that day. Stay tuned!
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