THE HIGH SCHOOLS / VINCE KOWALICK : Golden League Hitters Avail Themselves of ‘One of Those Days’

If offense is what you like, you’d have been enraptured Friday at any of three Golden League baseball games.

To wit: Saugus High routed Ridgecrest Burroughs, 17-6; Quartz Hill battered Palmdale, 16-10; and Antelope Valley outslugged Canyon, 20-10--a composite 79 runs, 82 hits (29 for extra bases, including 21 doubles and seven home runs) and 18 errors.

“It was like a fastball contest,” said Palmdale’s Travis Wilson, who belted a pair of two-run home runs at Quartz Hill. “There were not too many curves thrown in that game.”

Ironically, Quartz Hill junior Ron Turner logged the league’s only complete game that day, “scattering” 13 hits--including three home runs, a triple and two doubles.

At Ridgecrest, Saugus hit five doubles and two home runs in an 18-hit attack. Shortstop Walter White, who yielded to a designated-hitter most of last season, tied a school record with five hits in as many at-bats.

White hit the first home run of his career and catcher J. B. Johnson hit his fifth of the season.

“The ball seemed like it was huge,” White said. “Every time we hit the ball it was hard and in the right spot. Every time the ball was hit in the outfield it was in the gap.”

At Antelope Valley, the home club jumped on three pitchers for eight runs in the first inning. The Antelopes hit seven doubles--three by Tony Abrams, who was four for five with four runs batted in. Canyon added three doubles and a combined seven pitchers made appearances.

The high-desert winds might be used to explain such offensive fireworks. Earlier this season, Saugus center fielder Pat Henry was forced to exit a game at Quartz Hill after dirt blown from the infield affected his contact lenses.

But Palmdale’s Wilson and coaches Mike Van Cheri of Antelope Valley and Doug Worley of Saugus all attested to calm conditions.

“It was very mild,” Van Cheri said. “I guess it was just one of those days.”

Add runs, hits and errors: An unidentified player for Einstein Academy approached Oak Hill baseball Coach Phil Bruder before Friday’s Westside League game at Van Nuys Recreation Center.

“He said, ‘When the score reaches 30, do we get to go home?’ ” Bruder said.

He must have known something, for after three innings, including a 25-run third that took about an hour and 45 minutes, the game was called with Oak Hill leading, 30-1.

Junior Lance Strokolis hit three home runs, including two grand slams in the third inning, and had 11 RBIs. Oak Hill had 17 hits to go with eight errors by Einstein.

“The umpire came to me in the third inning and said, ‘What do you think?’ ” Bruder said. “I said, ‘I’d like to go home.’

“We played everyone by the second inning,” he said. “We never bunted and we never stole after it was 10-0. I told the kids not to run unless the ball was a base hit. The umpire widened the strike zone, but I wasn’t going to have my kids strike out on purpose. I wasn’t going to make a mockery of the game.”

Workaholic: Doug Maggiora likes to pitch. A lot. So that’s what he does.

In fact, Maggiora (6-foot-4, 165 pounds), a lanky junior right-hander for Saugus, leads Valley-area pitchers with 66 1/3 innings and 16 appearances. His record is 8-1 with 45 strikeouts and a 2.43 ERA.

Maggiora, the most-experienced pitcher on a sophomore-stocked staff, adapted a squirrelly side-arm delivery this season to increase longevity. Consequently, he has routinely made middle-inning entries this season.

On Friday, with Saugus leading Ridgecrest Burroughs, 7-6, in the fifth inning, Maggiora pitched the final three innnings to earn his fourth save. He also earned a save Tuesday against Canyon.

“I like it,” Maggiora said of the workload. “It’s no problem, especially since I made the switch. It’s not really a strain on my arm since I throw underhand. It’s almost like softball.”

Hardwood hero: Bob Mandeville is sometimes more concerned with double-teams than double plays.

Mandeville leads a double life.

Not only is Mandeville coach of the Notre Dame baseball team, he is the leading scorer for the Flying Tigers, a recreational basketball team for which he has averaged 39 points a game over the past five contests.

“We don’t have any plays,” Mandeville said. “We just run and gun.”

Although most of his points come via the three-point shot, Mandeville, 28, who stands 6-feet and weighs 180 pounds, says he can perform a 360-degree dunk.

Mandeville was a second-team All-Southern Section guard at Notre Dame in 1980.

He also was a third-team All-Southern Section baseball player.

Never the bride: Agoura’s Bryan Dameworth met the challenge of all high school cross-country runners across the nation last fall and currently has the fastest 3,000-meter time in the nation.

But there is one individual the Charger senior has shadowed since 1988: Coley Candaele of Carpinteria has won 1-A Division 1,600 titles the past two years while Dameworth finished second last year and third in 1988.

And it looks as if Candaele is laying the groundwork for a hat trick. The Warrior senior has the leading time in the nation in the 800 (1:51.19) and 1,500 (3:52.01). Candaele recorded the latter mark in winning the event at Mt. SAC last Saturday while Dameworth finished third in 3:53.53.

Since his sophomore year, Dameworth has run the 1,600 as a precursor to the 3,200, the event in which he will attempt to win his fourth 1-A title in a row.