Ground balls and success at Granada Hills...

Ground balls and success at Granada Hills High go hand in hand. Or, rather, glove in glove.

Led by senior shortstop Gary Matthews, the starters in the Granada Hills infield have not committed an error in nine games.

“Gary’s done an unbelievable job,” Coach Darryl Stroh said. “If we get ‘em to hit it on the ground, it’s been an out.”

Highlander outfielders also have been superlative. Granada Hills has only three errors, all by reserves in the outfield.

Offense: Canyon (3-6) continues to hit and be hit. The Cowboy batting average is .321, but the staff earned-run average is 6.37. Starters Brian Avasian (1-1) and Brad Coukos (0-2) have ERAs of 4.40 and 5.25.

An eight-game hitting streak by El Camino Real junior shortstop Dan Cey (17 for 34) came to a halt in Friday’s loss to Kennedy. However, Cey walked three times, once intentionally. Teammate Mike Smith has six hits (four doubles and two home runs) in 29 at-bats. . . . Cleveland has stolen 29 bases in 33 attempts, led by Julio Marcial (nine for 10). Notre Dame has swiped 32 bases in 40 attempts, led by Jasen McConaghy (six for six). . . .

Chaminade outfielder Brian Powers, a junior, continues to roll up impressive numbers. Powers is 22 for 43 with four doubles, six home runs and 16 runs batted in. All are team highs. . . . John Aguilar leads Hart in virtually every offensive category, including batting average (.444, 16 for 36), home runs (three), triples (four), doubles (two), runs batted in (13), hits (16), runs (14), at-bats (36), total bases (36), slugging percentage (.972) and on-base percentage (.565). . . .

Don Camacho, Harvard-Westlake’s leadoff batter, has an on-base percentage of .610.

Pitching: Channel Islands’ Angel Aragon (6-1) has 45 strikeouts in 43 innings. . . . Cleveland left-hander Robert Rundquist has given up one earned run in 19 innings and he cannot argue with the official scorer: Rundquist (2-0) walked a Reseda batter last week with the bases loaded to force in the run.

Defense: Westlake’s 3-6 record and 1-3 mark in the Marmonte League easily can be traced to porous defense. The Warriors made five consecutive errors in a 6-2 league loss to Agoura on Friday, and they made 11 errors in an earlier loss to Gahr. . . . Another Marmonte League team struggling with the glove is Newbury Park. The Panthers (6-4, 3-1) committed four errors in an 8-4 loss to Royal on Friday and have made 27 in 10 games.

Statistics current through Sunday.