Mandell Good Enough for Granada Hills : Baseball: Senior loses no-hitter in sixth, but aided by three home runs, he holds on for 10-4 victory.

Granada Hills High pitcher Marc Mandell stood on the brink of making school history Thursday against Taft, but he faltered.

Mandell did not give up a hit in the first 5 1/3 innings and the Highlanders jumped to a nine-run lead, but when he came off the mound after allowing four hits and four runs in the sixth, Coach Darryl Stroh yelled at him.

Stroh was angry that Mandell had blown his chance for a no-hitter and breaking the school record for fewest number of pitches in a seven-inning game (61, set by Bob Jones in 1977, according to Stroh).

By the time Mandell finished a 10-4 victory at Granada Hills, Stroh had calmed, but the missed opportunity still gnawed at him.

“The kid is pitching a great ballgame: He has a no-hitter, he’s 15 pitches away from breaking the record--he has a couple of really neat things going for him,” Stroh said. “It ticked me off a little bit, because you don’t get in that position very often.”

In the sixth inning, Mandell (2-0) surrendered four hits, four runs and his chances at two marks of distinction. He did, however, complete the game in 73 pitches by retiring the side in order in the seventh.

“I had that one bad inning,” Mandell said. “My main problem was that I kept getting the ball up.”

Other than that brief stretch, the senior was outstanding. He allowed only those four hits, walked one and struck out three.

And he excused his coach’s outburst. “(Stroh) wasn’t really mad at me,” Mandell said. “It’s just that you rarely get a chance to do something like that.”

Not quite as infrequent but an equally welcome sight for Granada Hills (6-2, 2-1 in Northwest Valley Conference play) was its power display. The Highlanders clubbed three home runs, including one by right fielder Adrian Torres, who belted a three-run shot over the right field fence to open the scoring in the third inning.

Granada Hills added two runs in the fourth and four in the fifth, including a deep home run by Jimmy Landress. Jim O’Brien homered in the sixth inning.

O’Brien, Landress, Eddie Kinsler and Bryan Weinstein each went two for three for Granada Hills.

Chad Marriner of Taft (7-7, 2-1) hit a two-run double in the sixth.