THE HIGH SCHOOLS / VINCE KOWALICK : Several League Baseball Champions Enjoy the Sweet Taste of Cakewalks

Champions of several area leagues this baseball season appeared to be, well, inoculated against pennant fever.

How else to explain the none-too-exciting runaway seasons by Westlake, Hart, Saugus and other high schools?

“I’m kind of surprised,” said Hart Coach Bud Murray, whose team’s winning streak reached 19 games with Friday’s 9-2 victory over San Gabriel in the Foothill League finale. “It’s like we haven’t had to tax anyone. Everybody thinks we just mass-produce baseball players out here and we don’t. We’ve had some kids come a long way.”

Hart (22-1-2), which likely will be seeded first when the Southern Section 4-A Division playoffs begin Friday, coasted to a 15-0 league record--its second perfect record in three years--and outdistanced second-place San Gabriel by five games.

Westlake (25-1) laughed all the way to its first Marmonte League title with a 12-0 record, enjoying a five-game cushion over second-place Royal. The Warriors, winners of their first 15 games, probably will be seeded first in the 5-A Division playoffs.

In the Golden League, Saugus (18-5-1, 14-1 in league play), an inexperienced team diminished by the graduation of several starters, finished six games ahead of Palmdale and Antelope Valley and should enter the 3-A Division playoffs in good standing.

In the Frontier League, Agoura (10-0) coasted to the league title four games ahead of second-place Santa Clara. Co-champions Fillmore and St. Bonaventure (13-2) finished atop the Tri-Valley League standings, 6 1/2 games in front of Moorpark (6-8-1).

Can you say cakewalk?

The Wall: The Kelly green wooden right-field wall at Hart has proudly proclaimed the confines to be “Indian Territory” since the barrier was erected by the school’s baseball team in 1969.

“I hate to see it go,” said Hart assistant Bob Keown, a pitcher and part-time carpenter for the ’69 Indians.

But it’s going, going . . . After the season, the fence will be removed and the field’s dimensions shortened to make room for a parking lot and portable classrooms.

Hart Coach Bud Murray said that the field’s dimensions--it is 390 feet to straightaway center field--will decrease only slightly. He also said that segments of the old wall--including the picture of the smiling Indian that Hart players traditionally touch before the start of each game--will be preserved and mounted on the new chain-link fence.

“We’re gonna have ‘Indian Territory’ out there somewhere,” Murray said. “Maybe we’ll have some ply board on a small stretch.”

The crack of the bat: Vinnie Orlando’s feverish hitting streak broke this week. So did his bat.

His aluminum bat.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Orlando, a junior second baseman for Notre Dame. “After having a streak like I did, I guess something like this is gonna happen.”

Orlando was 10 for 14 during a recent four-game stretch, including six for six against Harvard to tie a Southern Section record.

Last week, however, Orlando was a combined one for six in two games and left holding a useless bat after a pitch on the fists did more than make a dent.

“It had a huge crack,” Orlando said. “I was shocked.”

Basebrawl: Five players were ejected after a sixth-inning melee in Friday’s Desert-Inyo League showdown between Paraclete and host Tehachapi.

Plenty was on the line. Paraclete needed a victory to tie Tehachapi, ranked No. 1 in the Southern Section Small Schools Division, for the league’s co-championship.

With two out in the sixth and Paraclete leading, 4-1, Tehachapi’s Shawn Lunz grounded to first where Jason Williams beat him to the bag.

Lunz, however, made an unsuccessful attempt to jar the ball from Williams’ glove. Words were exchanged, tempers flared, dugouts cleared and Paraclete Coach Andy Gavel was up to his stirrups in misbehavior.

“I got blindsided,” Gavel said. “It was a really emotional game. They’re losing, they have three hits and they’re frustrated.”

Lunz and Williams, as well as Paraclete pitcher Tim Salado and Tehachapi’s Jason Caudle and Brian Stevens, were ejected.

Salado’s six-inning performance, however, was enough to carry Paraclete to a 5-3 victory. Paraclete (13-7 overall) and Tehachapi (17-4-1) tied for the league title with 9-1 records.

Check back in a year: Hart golf Coach Dennis Ford was hardly astonished when his team finished in a first-place tie in the Southern Section Central Regional last week.

It marked the second consecutive year that Hart has advanced to the section’s team final, which will be held Monday in Palm Springs.

“Last year was a bit of a surprise,” Ford said. “I think everybody on the team kind of had career days. This year, everybody sort of expected us to make it.”

Add golf: Grant (8-0) enters the City Section golf finals this week at Griffith Park after winning the 3-A Division finals last Tuesday at Woodley Lakes Golf Course with a season-best score of 402.

“We didn’t have any (personal) best scores,” Coach Howard Levine said of Tuesday’s outing. “But we were closing in on individual bests.”

Josh Siegel led Grant with a five-over-par 77. Johnny Choi and Kelly Gilmore each shot 79, and Tyler Cann shot 80.

Signed, sealed, bewildered: Westlake’s Charlie Wi, the two-time Marmonte League individual golf champion and a four-year letterman, has signed a letter of intent to play at Nevada Reno.

We think.

Contacted at home Thursday night, Wi said that he had received a letter of intent from Nevada Reno, but that he hadn’t signed it.

Wi also was considering an offer from Southeastern Louisiana.

“I haven’t signed it,” Wi said. “I’m still thinking about it.”

A few moments later, though, Wi reversed his field.

“Just say that I’ll probably sign it (on Friday),” he said.

Probably? Sorry, Charlie, that’s not a definite answer.

“OK, say I’m going to sign it,” he said. “I’m tired of worrying about it. I’ll sign it (Friday). Heck, my parents already signed it anyway.”