Saugus baseball team falls short against unbeaten Rams

  It looked as if the Saugus High School baseball team was on the brink of ending a five-game losing streak on Tuesday at World Series Park. The Sachems held a 4-2 lead after four innings before the visiting and unbeaten Shawsheen Valley Tech Rams tallied five times over the next two frames to pull out a 7-4 win over Saugus.

  The defeat dropped the Sachems to 1-7 on the season. The young Saugus squad has been competitive in pretty much all of its contests so far this spring but has not been able to come out on top in most of them. Tuesday’s tilt provided a familiar scenario. The Sachems, overall, received a good pitching performance without the benefit of a win.

  Starter Cam Bernard (five and two-thirds innings, six strikeouts) was solid until the top of the fifth when the Rams reached him for two runs and then added three more in the sixth to turn a 4-2 Saugus lead into a 7-4 deficit. Led by two hits each and three runs scored by Cam Soroko and Shane Bourque, Saugus tacked on two runs in the first and third frames to grab a two-run edge after four innings. Bernard helped his own cause offensively with three hits and three RBIs. All told, the Sachems collected nine hits, as Jordan Rodriguez and Tyler Riley contributed knocks as well. Five errors in the field hurt the Sachems and helped lead to some of Shawsheen’s runs.

  It was the second meeting between the two teams this season. The Rams emerged victorious 9-5 in the season opener a few weeks ago.

  Last Friday at home against Beverly, the Sachems once again drew first blood with a run in the bottom of the first. But they gave up six runs over the second and third innings and fell behind 6-1. Saugus managed a single run in the sixth, and Beverly responded with a tally in the seventh to account for the final 7-2 result. Nathan Soroko stroked three hits, including a double, and drove in a run, while Cam Soroko singled and scored. Connor Bloom had Saugus’s only other hit in the loss. Sachems’ pitching allowed 14 hits, walked four and fanned five.

  Saugus faced Swampscott on the road on Wednesday and hosted Lynn English in a makeup game on Thursday. From there, the Sachems were scheduled to entertain Stoneham next Monday, May 1, at home (scheduled 4 p.m. first pitch).