HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK : Saugus Needs Fire for Playoffs

Saugus High will be the Golden League’s No. 3-seeded team when the baseball playoffs begin next week, even if the Centurions lose today’s regular-season finale against Canyon.

The Centurions (12-9, 8-6 in league play) could be eliminated quickly from postseason play, however, unless they snap out of a funk in which they have lost four of their past six games.

“We’ve just had too many flat games this season,” Coach Doug Worley said after Tuesday’s 8-3 loss to Antelope Valley. “We just didn’t get fired up today and that’s happened a lot this season. This team has as much talent as any team in the league, but they haven’t shown it.”

If Saugus loses to Canyon, and Quartz Hill defeats Ridgecrest Burroughs, each team would have an 8-7 league record, but the Centurions will be the league’s No. 3-seeded team based on their 2-1 record against the Rebels.

Rebel watch: Quartz Hill cannot finish among the top three teams in the Golden League baseball standings, but the Rebels (11-9, 7-7) still have a chance to earn a wild-card berth in the Southern Section 3-A Division playoffs entering today’s game against Ridgecrest Burroughs.

Quartz Hill, 2-6 in league play three weeks ago, has won five of its past six games. The only loss was a 4-3 setback against Saugus, which staged a two-out, three-run, seventh-inning rally.

Pitching has keyed the charge; the Rebels’ staff has thrown five complete games in the past six outings while giving up 21 runs.

Ron Turner (6-3) posted three wins during the streak and Chad Hamilton had two wins and a loss.

Easy pickings: Robert Mena of Providence (7-2, 0.79 earned-run average) picked up his easiest victory and complete game of the season Saturday when he faced, and struck out, three batters in a 16-0 Liberty League win over Holy Martyrs. The game was called after 1 1/2 innings.

Providence Coach Richard Mena (Robert’s father), however, was angered by the game’s stoppage because Providence had not played in more than a week because of the school’s annual senior retreat to the mountains outside Santa Barbara.

“I thought a game had to go four innings before it was halted because of the score,” Mena said. “But the umpire apparently didn’t think so. I wasn’t looking to embarrass anybody, but we needed to get in some work. The way things turned out, we didn’t.”

Fading at the finish: Burroughs has lost six games--including five in league play--during the opposing team’s final at-bat.

“We have to incorporate some catchy slogan for next year to motivate the team,” Coach Terry Scott said. “Something like playing four quarters, but with seven innings instead.”

How about borrowing from Westlake? Last season when the Warriors were ranked No. 1 in the nation, their slogan was “Westlake Plays a Hard Seven.”

Looking ahead: Rio Mesa sophomore Marion Jones won the girls’ 100, 200 and 400 in the Channel League finals last week, and she has the leading time in the nation in each event this season, yet Spartan co-Coach Brian FitzGerald hopes that she will drop the 400 from her itinerary after the Southern Section 3-A Division championships May 17.

“I’ll leave the final decision up to her,” FitzGerald said. “But I would rather see her run some real fast times in the 100 and the 200 at the state meet than have her try to win all three.”

Jones, the defending state champion in the 100 and 200, is one of seven individuals who have been double winners in those events since the girls’ state meet began in 1974. No one has won the 100, 200 and 400 in the same year.

Revenge: Notre Dame hurdler Jon O’Brien pulled possibly one of the biggest upsets in school athletic history in the Mission League finals last week.

One week after being taunted by Crespi’s Ryan Kieling during the 120-yard high hurdles race in a dual meet, O’Brien turned the tables on Kieling, beating him for the league title in the 110-meter high hurdles at Cal State Northridge.

For O’Brien, it was sweet revenge. Kieling had turned, stared and clenched his fists at the Knight senior as he crossed the finish line in first place after coming back from a three-meter deficit in the Crespi-Notre Dame dual meet two weeks ago.

“I was motivated (Friday) because of what he did and also I felt really good that day,” said O’Brien, who timed 14.9 seconds to Kieling’s 15.2 runner-up effort.

After Kieling’s antics in the dual meet, Celt Coach Tim Lins pulled Kieling aside for some constructive criticism. “It was a cheap move,” Kieling admitted. “I shouldn’t have done it.”

Kieling, who said he had not lost to a Notre Dame runner before Friday, won Southern Section 2-A Division titles in the 110 high and 300 intermediate hurdles last year and advanced to the state prelims in the highs.

O’Brien has run 14.9--his personal best--twice this season and Kieling ran a fully automatic 14.63 last year.

Putting it all together: Birmingham pole vaulter Howard Schrier has speed and agility but he is still developing the proper mental attitude. The defending City Section champion said he needs to put it all together in a meet instead of in practice.

Schrier has cleared 15 feet 6 inches and has come close to 16-0 on several occasions in practice, but his official personal best is 14-8 because that is the highest he has vaulted in a meet.

“I need to get some tunnel vision,” said Schrier. “I just got to put it all together in a meet. Until I do that, I’ll be jumping 14-6 the rest of my life.”

Mike Glaze and staff writers John Ortega and Kirby Lee contributed to this notebook.