A TOPSY-TURVY YEAR IN FOOTHILL; HART, BURROUGHS STILL THE BEST.

Byline: Lee Barnathan Daily News Staff Writer

Canyon sweeps Hart but gets swept by Saugus. After losing twice to Canyon, Hart routs Burbank. Valencia has a chance to take the lead but gets swept by Burroughs.

Which Foothill League baseball team wants to step forward and take charge?

Some answers, in order of likelihood:

Hart (18-3, 7-2): Coach Bud Murray is unconcerned. The Indians are batting .402 as a team and have a 2.12 ERA. So what if they hit the ball hard against Canyon but at the fielders? They hit the ball just as hard against Burbank and scored 29 runs.

Chris Wright isn't seeing as many good pitches to hit, so his average has fallen from .600 to .478. So what? Matt Fredericshean has four home runs and 19 RBI in just 15 at-bats. Jeff Gaeta (.536), Tim Hutting (.479), Ryan Haag (.418) and Brian Barrios (.400) also are hitting well.

Murray said pitcher Jamie Shields is struggling a little, but you can't tell by his 1.87 ERA. Plus, Andy Davidson (8-1, 1.42 ERA) continues to throw well and Justin Wiley has improved to 2.18 (he was above 3.00 a couple of weeks ago).

Burroughs (10-9, 5-3): Rising out of the ashes is the defending champion. It is just 1-1/2 games behind Hart and plays a two-game series next week. First, however, comes Canyon Tuesday and Friday, sandwiched around a makeup game with Burbank on Wednesday.

The reason for the resurgence: improved pitching. Nick Jastrow is 5-1 with a save and a 4.42 ERA and Tony Sandoval shook off his suspension for fighting - and shook off the rout against Hart - to knock his ERA down three points to 5.60.

The hitting continues to be there. Tommy Perez is at .528 with eight home runs, 34 RBI and a 1.057 slugging percentage. Jeremy Cartee (.428) has four home runs, two triples and 17 RBI.

Everyone else: The other teams have been too inconsistent or too young to mount a threat for the league title. They will have to be satisfied fighting it out for a playoff berth.

Valencia (13-7, 5-4) beat Burroughs Friday, ending a three-game skid in which the Vikings were outscored 26-8. Ryan Coe guaranteed a victory Friday and delivered with two home runs, four RBI and six strong innings on the mound. Brady Burrill hit his first home run of the season Friday.

Saugus (7-11, 5-4) has won four in a row, but it's too little, too late for the league title, and it needs to go 5-1 in its last six games to avoid its first losing season since 1979. That means it has to win at least one from Hart this week.

Canyon (7-12, 3-6) appeared on the verge of greatness with two victories against Hart.

``If Canyon played in this league like it did against us, they'd be leading this league,'' Hart coach Bud Murray said.

But Canyon doesn't. Canyon didn't score a run in two losses to Saugus, and Canyon coach Scott Willis has no idea why. ``If I knew that, we'd be playing that way every day,'' Willis said.

Canyon has a chance at a playoff berth because it plays Burroughs this week and Valencia next week. Both are ahead of Canyon in the standings.

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PHOTO Valencia catcher Brady Burrill hit his first home run of the season last Friday against Burroughs.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News