STATWATCH : Torrid Staff Fuels St. Genevieve

With three shutouts in its past four games, the St. Genevieve pitching staff might be the hottest in the Valley.

Pitchers Roland De La Maza (4-1) and Mike Rohrbough (7-1) have pitched all 28 innings during the stretch, allowing 4 runs and 23 hits. De La Maza has thrown 2 shutouts and struck out 21 batters in 16 innings. Rohrbough has struck out nine in 11 innings.

De La Maza has struck out 80 in 47 innings and has an 0.59 earned-run average. Rohrbough has 42 strikeouts in 46 innings and a 2.26 ERA.

“Roland is the best pitcher in the league. Mike is a close second,” St. Genevieve Coach Kevin Kane said last week after Rohrbough had pitched a three-hit shutout against Salesian.

Chaminade Coach Steve Costley, however, took exception to Kane’s remarks, which are displayed prominently on Chaminade’s bulletin board. “There’s no way that Rohrbough is the second-best pitcher in the league,” Costley said. “I’ve got two kids, Kenny Meyer and Greg Baumgartner, who are better pitchers than he is.”

Meyer (2-1), Chaminade’s starting shortstop, has an 0.45 ERA in 15 innings of relief and has struck out 17 and walked 4. Baumgartner (3-0), has 23 strikeouts in 30 innings and a 1.62 ERA.

Meyer also has impressive fielding statistics. In 20 games, he has committed two errors, one of which was a pickoff attempt when he was pitching. He has a .986 fielding percentage.

Runs: Sylmar scored 41 runs in victories over Grant (21-0) and Hollywood (20-5) last week after scoring 39 runs in its eight previous games. Sylmar has scored at least eight runs against five of its six East Valley League rivals. The sixth, Poly, has shut out the Spartans twice.

Hitting: Royal’s Jason Jones has tied Dan Russell’s school record for home runs in a season with five. Despite the Highlanders’ 1-8 Marmonte League record, Jones has flourished after moving from the leadoff spot to fifth in the order. Since the move at the start of the league season, the junior center fielder is batting .419 and has driven in 11 runs. His five home runs have all come in league play. Royal has hit only nine home runs, six in league games.

Hart first baseman Ray Gardocki has 30 of the team’s 148 runs batted in. Hart is batting .358 and seven players are batting better than .350, including Joe DeSchryver (.412) and Lance Migita (.435). Migita’s on-base percentage is .518 and the team on-base percentage is .449.

Saugus third baseman Tom Dodson hit his 12th career home run to set a school record. Dodson eclipsed the mark of 11 set last year by Don Pedersen. Dodson, a senior who has a .345 average over three seasons, holds five Saugus career records, including RBIs (65), runs (59), extra-base hits (30) and total bases (133).

El Camino Real third baseman Denny Vigo is batting a team-high .452. He was 6 for 10 in three games last week, including a 4-for-5 performance in a win over Cleveland. Vigo also leads the Conquistadores in home runs (4), RBIs (18), total bases (39) and slugging percentage (.847).

El Camino Real sophomore Ryan McGuire has 11 walks and an on-base percentage of .500. McGuire has struck out only four times in 48 at-bats.

Pitching: Grant’s Javier Delahoya has 80 strikeouts in 48 innings. . . . Canoga Park’s Mike Kerber has 38 strikeouts and has issued only four walks.

Softball: Saugus senior Chris Arambula set a school record with her 24th career hit. Arambula, who is batting .400, has 17 RBIs and 16 stolen bases. . . . Saugus pitcher Cathy Lewis (6-3-1) has surrendered one earned run in 69 innings.

BASEBALL TOP 10 Selected by sportswriters of The Times

Last Rk Wk Team League Record 1 1 Hart Foothill 22-0 2 2 Chatsworth West Valley 19-1 3 5 Simi Valley Marmonte 18-5 4 3 Granada Hills Mid-Valley 12-3 5 4 Poly East Valley 15-3 6 7 Notre Dame Del Rey 14-8 7 9 St. Genevieve Santa Fe 15-2-1 8 NR Kennedy Mid-Valley 13-9 9 NR Thousand Oaks Marmonte 13-6 10 NR Rio Mesa Channel 15-6-1

NR--Not ranked.

Through Tuesday’s games.