"All we wanted our guys to do was put the ball in play," said Saugus head coach John Maggiora. "We had a feeling that good things would happen if we did."

Good things did happen for Saugus. The Centurions beat Golden Valley, 16-4, thanks in large part to a seven-run third inning. In that inning, there were five fly balls that wound up as hits.

"You would think that it would work to our advantage because we practice in it every day," said Golden Valley coach Scott Drootin. "We've taken a step back the last couple games. I know we're not this bad. We've got to go back to work. We're going to work harder. It's personal now."

Perhaps even tougher than the wind for Golden Valley was Saugus' pitching.

Starter Cameron Castillo retired the first seven Golden Valley hitters, three on strikeouts. After four innings, Castillo had allowed three runs on five hits and one walk. He struck out five.

Scott Kerrigan relieved and struck out five in two scoreless innings.

"You just have to adjust to the wind," Castillo said. "If your ball is getting up, you have to just hold onto it a little longer so it stays down."

While he was happy for all the run support, Castillo said he couldn't help but feel for Golden Valley's pitchers.

"I feel for him because of all the balls that were hit that could have been outs," Castillo said. "We really had only about five or six balls that were legit hits."

One of those was Justin Sheehan's fourth-inning solo homer to center. Matt Emerson added three hits for Saugus, including a double.

Castillo was staked to an early 3-0 lead even though Saugus had trouble putting the ball in play against Golden Valley starter Scott Barlow. Saugus took advantage of five hit batters and three walks to score two runs in the first and another in the second. On the other hand, the Centurions (7-3, 2-1) struck out five times in the two innings.

"It was frustrating," Maggiora said. "I didn't like all the strikeouts."

Drootin didn't like all the hit batters.

"We kept saying, ‘He's got good stuff,'" Drootin said. "But you put guys on base, bad things can happen to you."

Golden Valley (3-6, 0-3) has been outscored 38-8 in its last two games. After Wednesday's 22-4 loss to Valencia, Drootin said he called up players from the junior varsity team.

"The mindset now is, the younger kids are getting an opportunity to play so they are pretty excited," Drootin said. "My mindset is, I'm not happy. I don't care if we lose every game as long as we play catch. We're not doing that."