BASEBALL BEAT: FABELA'S DEFENSE GETS A WORKOUT : OUTFIELDER IMPRESSIVE FOR LOBOS.

Byline: Gerry Gittelson Daily News Staff Writer

Burly left fielder Adam Fabela is a lot faster and a lot more athletic than he looks. Better known as Littlerock High's all-time leading tackler in football, Fabela made two sensational defensive plays in the second inning against Highland two weeks ago.

Fabela's leaping catch at the fence robbed Daniel Champieux of a home run. Four batters later, Fabela sprinted in and made a diving, acrobatic catch of Jason Allec's soft fly to end the inning.

The other Littlerock outfielders, Marcus Bias and Lino Cambaliza, had their share of disasters. Bias got caught sleeping on Nate O'Malley's ground ball up the middle, turning a single into a two-run double. Later, he dropped Brandon Golphenee's fly ball that was coming down right in his pocket. Cambaliza was very late reacting to Champieux's pop fly in the fourth, which dropped for a double and prompted coach Dennis Henderson to pull Cambaliza from the game immediately.

Called shot: Mike Hewson of Lancaster promised coach Doug Martin he was going to hit a home run as reliever Drew Kennedy of Highland was warming up to face him Wednesday at Highland. Hewson then rocked Kennedy's first offering deep over the right-field fence for his third home run of the season.

Hewson, a left-handed hitting shortstop, was 4 for 5 with four RBI to raise his average to .571. He also turned two double plays.

Dusting off the Louisville: Matt Parris of Paraclete strengthened his reputation as a pitcher by shutting down L.A. Baptist 5-2 on five hits with 11 strikeouts Tuesday. But Parris is proving equally effective as a hitter. He had two hits against the Knights, raising his average to .440.

Three charms: Juniors Jason Kubel of Highland, Matt Harrington of Palmdale and Delwyn Young of Littlerock give the Golden League three potential major-league draft choices by next year.

Kubel is batting .491 with a region-best six triples and 29 RBI. He is also a part-time pitcher who had nine strikeouts in five relief innings Wednesday against Lancaster. Harrington is 5-1 with a 1.96 ERA and 61 strikeouts in 36 innings. He is batting .354 with five home runs. Young, a switch-hitting shortstop is batting .500 with nine home runs - eight in the first nine games.

Here's the news: Littlerock pulled out a 9-7 victory over Antelope Valley with two runs in the eighth on Wednesday. Young and Mike Arvizo hit home runs.

Rankings: Highland is the only Golden League team ranked in the Southern Section polls. The Bulldogs were 17th but might fall out after Wednesday's 18-7 loss to Lancaster. Desert Christian is No. 2 in Division V and Boron is fifth in the same division.

Bad omen: Lancaster's game at Highland on Wednesday started 10 minutes early for no apparent reason. ``The umpires were ready to go,'' Lancaster coach Doug Martin said with a shrug.

But the pace was anything but brisk. The six-inning, three-hour game featured 25 runs, 22 hits, 13 walks and four hit batters.