BASEBALL NOTEBOOK: VASQUEZ FIRSTS KEEP COMING.

Byline: Heather Gripp Staff Writer

The Vasquez High baseball team continued its record-setting season with another first. The Mustangs earned their first playoff victory Friday by defeating Sage Hill 14-2 in the Southern Section Div. V first round.

Vasquez, making only its second postseason appearance, will play at Boron today in the second round.

Pitching had been the Mustangs' strength while establishing a program record for season wins; Vasquez (18-3) qualified for the playoffs as freelance team. But the Mustangs spent last week focusing on hitting, and it showed.

Five Vasquez players finished with multiple hits against Sage Hill. The Mustangs had seven extra-base hits, including two home runs by Vince Ortiz. Matt Kelsey was 3 for 3 with his first home run of the season. Ortiz finished 3 for 4 with four RBI.

Senior Eddie Cook threw a complete game to improve to 9-1.

--Homer happy: Home runs were scare for Quartz Hill most of the season, but suddenly the Rebels can't stop hitting them. Quartz Hill has 18 home runs in its past four games, including five in each of he past two.

Senior Alex Massari was the biggest hitter of Friday's 13-2 victory over visiting Atascadero. He hit a two-run homer in the second inning and added a three-run shot in the third en route to finishing 3 for 4 with five RBI in the Div. II first-round game. The performance gives him a team-high seven home runs.

Brian Chavez started the scoring with a three-run homer in the first, giving the junior four home runs in four games, a streak in which Quartz Hill has outscored opponent 47-15. Michael Costales and Kent Wulf also homered.

The home-run outburst was far different than what the Rebels experienced a year earlier against another third-place representative from the Pac-5 League; Quartz Hill was upset 6-1 in the first round by Righetti of Santa Maria last season. The good fortune against Atascadero, this year's third-place Pac-5 team, advances the top-seeded Rebels to today's second round at Centennial of Corona.

Centennial is coming off an eight-inning 7-6 victory over Don Lugo of Chino.

--No support: Palmdale's Jason Cable increased his region-best strikeout total to 109 by striking out eight while throwing a four-hitter Friday. But with the opposing pitcher giving his teammates an even harder time, Cable and the Falcons were eliminated from the Div. II playoffs.

Palmdale (15-11) managed only three hits in the 4-1 loss to Gahr of Cerritos.

--Payback: Paraclete lost to Brentwood on an eighth-inning home run when the teams met in early May. The Spirits avoided a repeat of their agony when the teams met again Friday in the first round of the Div. V playoffs. Paraclete (15-7-1) defeated Brentwood 5-2 as senior pitcher Dan Fluharty improved to 7-1.

The Spirits host San Jacinto in the second round.

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Eddie Cook pitched a complete game Friday in Vasquez's victory over Sage Hill in the first round.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News