Quartz Hill Bristles After Beating Palmdale, 6-1 : Baseball: Rebels have won four in a row since abandoning their razors. That <i> other </i> catcher stars.

Keep a cap on the shaving cream and let the razors rust, the Quartz Hill High baseball team is on a roll.

The Rebels, 6-1 winners over Palmdale on Friday, began growing goatees a couple of weeks back, trying to end the three-game losing streak that banished them to a second-place finish in the Golden League.

But Quartz Hill’s victory over the league-champion Falcons (16-8, 8-2) was the team’s fourth in a row and Coach Mike Nielson hopes to keep his team shaggy and successful for the rest of May.

“We’ve always had a clean-shave rule but something had to be done,” Nielson said, stroking his own black bristles. “My wife hates it and she can’t wait for the whole deal to be over but I told her it’d hopefully be a couple more weeks.”

The Rebels (16-5, 7-3) tuned up for the playoffs by breaking a 1-1 game open in the fifth with three runs on one hit and five Palmdale errors. The only hit was delivered by catcher J.D. Smith, whose single up the middle drove in David Fischenich from second base with the go-ahead run.

Smith also played an important role on defense, calling the pitches for Rebel right-hander Mark Madsen (3-2), who tossed a three-hitter and struck out nine while confounding the Falcons with a fastball, curve and straight changeup.

“I don’t know if I would have finished the game if it wasn’t for J.D.,” said Madsen, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound sophomore who became visibly upset in the sixth inning when he began to waver.

“(Smith) told me to get my head in the game, like he has all year long. I only shook him off twice today and normally I don’t do it at all.”

Smith, in his second year on the varsity and his first as the full-time starter, took the opportunity to showcase his talents against those of Palmdale catcher Chris Paxton, the Southern Section career leader in doubles.

Paxton, a crowd favorite, was removed in the fourth inning so he could receive recognition along with several of the Falcons’ six other seniors. Falcon fans then turned their attention to Smith, peppering him with insults.

“It’s not that bad here if you tuck in your rabbit ears,” Smith said. “Playing against (Paxton) kept me from being lazy because I wanted people to know there’s another good catcher in the Golden League.”

Quartz Hill scored two more runs in the sixth off Palmdale pitcher Mike Preski (6-2), who went the distance and allowed seven hits and three earned runs.

The Falcons scored their only run in the second when Justice Jones reached first on an error, went to second on Denver Martinez’s walk, and scored on a single by Jason Glunt.

Darrell Hussman had three hits and a run batted in for Quartz Hill.