THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Hoover Joins Foes of Helmet Law After It Costs Tornadoes Three Runs

Hats off to Hoover High first baseman Mickey Moreno for hitting a towering, two-out three-run homer over the right-field wall at Arcadia on Friday.

On second thought, keep those hats on. The umpire ruled that lead runner Jason Rodriguez had taken off his helmet before he stepped on home plate. Rodriguez was called out to end the fifth inning and Moreno’s blast was nullified along with an apparent 3-1 lead. Despite outhitting the Apaches, 8-2, Hoover lost the Pacific League opener, 6-0.

The decision did not sit well with Hoover baseball Coach Bob Cooper, who said Rodriguez was a mere step from home when he shed his chapeau.

“I go over the whole thing with the guy and he said, ‘I don’t care what you say,’ ” Cooper said. “I said, ‘(Arcadia players) took their helmets off and wiped the sweat off their heads, how come you didn’t call them out?’

“You go back and look at the Kirk Gibson home run and when he’s rounding third he’s got his helmet off and he’s throwing his arms in the air. I said, ‘If you called him out you’d be gone so fast.’ ”

The Tornadoes faded out after the controversy, allowing Arcadia five runs in the bottom of the fifth.

Moreno, who did not realize that the home run had been negated until he reached the dugout, was incredulous.

“The ball was across the street,” he said. “And you’re not going to throw anybody out from the parking lot.”

New man on the mound: Who is Doug Maggiora and what in the name of Roger Salkeld is he doing racking up strikeouts at Saugus High?

Maggiora, 6-foot-3, 175 pounds, a submarining right-hander, has emerged as the ace of Saugus’ young pitching staff, which was depleted by the departure of Salkeld, now in the Seattle Mariner organization.

Maggiora, who logged less than six innings last season as a sophomore, is the Centurions’ most experienced pitcher.

“We figured all along he’d be the ace,” Coach Doug Worley said. “He’s the junior. All the rest are sophomores.”

Maggiora (3-1), however, exudes exceptional poise. On Tuesday, in a nonleague game against Hart, he struck out nine--including five in a row--in four innings of relief. The game was called in the ninth inning because of darkness with the score tied, 4-4.

On Friday, Maggiora struck out one in 4 2/3 relief innings and earned a win over Ridgecrest Burroughs.

As for his side-arm delivery, which he adopted this season, Maggiora remarked, “It seems like it’s a lot easier. I’m confident with it. We should get a lot of ground balls this year. There aren’t going to be a lot of strikeouts without Roger here.”

Oh, no?

The big chill: A cold front that sprinkled snow on local mountains last week had players at Antelope Valley, Palmdale and Quartz Hill--the Golden League’s northerly neighbors--catching balls gingerly during afternoon practice.

“We did have a few flakes coming down,” Palmdale Coach Terry Vernor said. “The wind-chill factor must have been about 20 degrees or less. God, it was cold.”

At Antelope Valley, first-year Coach Mike Van Cheri curtailed practice Monday after cold winds became unbearable.

“The wind was blowing like a son of a gun,” Van Cheri said. “We were hitting fungoes to left field and they were winding up in right field.”

Rave reviews: Following the example set by his older brother, Brendon Cowsill is making a rather auspicious varsity baseball debut for Crescenta Valley. Brendon, a freshman third baseman who was supposed to play on the junior varsity team but was promoted because of an injury, is batting .350. He hit home runs in the Falcons’ first two games.

Shane Cowsill, a senior who pitches and plays first base, hit .390 as a sophomore and drove in 39 runs--third highest among Southern Section 4-A Division players in 1988.

Successful auditions come naturally to the Cowsill boys--show-time savvy is in their blood. Their father, Paul, was a member of “The Cowsills,” a popular bubble-gum rock band in the late 1960s. The group, which recently performed on KLOS’ “Mark and Brian” radio program, was composed of eight members of the Cowsill family and was the true-life basis for “The Partridge Family” television show.

Occasionally, die-hard fans remind the brothers of their roots.

At one point during a Las Vegas tournament game last season, Shane noticed a first-base umpire staring at the back of his jersey.

“In the middle of a pitch he goes, ‘Are you related to the singing Cowsills?’ ” Shane said. “I said, ‘Paul’s my dad.’ And he says, ‘Oh, wow! Which one is he?’ He’s looking up into the stands and I’m thinking, ‘Hey, get in the game, bud.’ ”

Youth is served: Right-hander Jeff Suppan, the first freshman pitcher to play on Crespi’s varsity during Coach Scott Muckey’s four-year tenure, won his first game Saturday--a 12-2 decision over North Torrance.

“We wouldn’t have pitched him much, but he looked like he was way further along than most freshman,” Muckey said. “He’s gonna be a good pitcher. He’s about in the same stage that (Alemany’s Joey) Rosselli was in when he was a freshman.”

Rosselli is 3-0 and has signed a letter of intent to play baseball and football at Arizona State.

Era enders: Losing is unfamiliar to Rio Mesa High track Coach Brian FitzGerald. A streak of four undefeated Channel League seasons and an estimated 30 dual-meet victories was snapped Thursday when the Rio Mesa boys were thumped, 93-43, by Buena.

The Spartans, runners-up in the Southern Section 3-A championships last May, graduated several top competitors, including Lester Smith, Jeff Garner, Travis Cooksey and Scott Guerrero.

Smith, now at Westmont College, bounded 47 feet, 3 1/2 inches in the triple jump and Garner leaped 6-6 in the high jump. Cooksey, who ran 800 meters in 1 minute 52.05 seconds, won Master’s meet and 4-A Division titles in 1987. Guerrero was second in the 3-A 800 last year.

Rio Mesa still boasts high jumper Eric Thomas, who has a personal best of 6-8.