THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Once Grant Got Accustomed to the Mound, It Was All Downhill

Kevin Grant stood atop the pitching mound at L. A. Baptist High and surveyed its unusually sharp slope. He shook his head.

“It’s like you’re on the top of the world up here,” Grant said, smiling.

A few hours earlier, that same pile of dirt felt about as stable underfoot as Lithuanian soil. Grant, Montclair Prep’s ace right-hander, feared the quick drop might wreak havoc on his money pitch, a knuckle curve.

As are most teen-agers, however, Grant is prone to shifts of fancy.

Funny how pitching a one-hitter and striking out 19--as Grant did in Friday’s Alpha League game against L. A. Baptist--has a way of changing a guy’s mind.

“When I took my first throws, I wasn’t looking forward to the game,” he said. “I would throw my curve and it would bounce about three feet in front of the plate.”

After a little fine-tuning, Grant hit pay dirt, improving to 5-1 after the 16-1 rout.

“It just felt like I couldn’t miss with anything,” he said. “The batters would do anything I wanted them to. If I wanted them to swing at a hard-breaking curve in the dirt, it would just happen.”

Breaking out: The resurgence of the Notre Dame High baseball team is due, in part, to the return of center fielder Chris Prince. The Knights, who were 1-4 early in the season, improved to 8-6-1 and 3-0 in San Fernando Valley League play with a 16-3 thumping of Harvard on Saturday.

Prince, a junior who missed a month of baseball with a broken bone in his right hand, is five for nine since his return. Wearing a soft splint against Chaminade, he drove in Notre Dame’s first four runs. Saturday, he tripled, walked three times and scored three runs.

“I knew that we weren’t as deep in the bench this year, so losing him hurt us,” Coach Bob Mandeville said. “He’s really added punch to our lineup.”

Ouch. Did you have to say punch, Bob?

The injury to Prince’s hand occurred when he smacked the cement ceiling of the Notre Dame dugout in frustration shortly after the Knights surrendered six runs to Camarillo.

Now, Prince can finally crack a smile about the bad break.

“I’m thinking about re-breaking it at the beginning of next year,” he mused. “Who knows, maybe over the summer.”

Bubble-gum kid: Jeff Suppan, the first freshman pitcher to crack Crespi’s varsity roster in Coach Scott Muckey’s four-year tenure, is yielding big dividends. Muckey compared Suppan, a right-hander, to a young Joey Rosselli, Alemany’s left-handed pitcher who has committed to Arizona State.

Suppan (2-1) has been super. He pitched a perfect game for 6 1/3 innings against Lynwood on Friday before allowing a lone bloop single. He struck out 10 in the Celts’ 4-0 victory.

“I wasn’t throwing it that fast but my curveball was right where it should be,” he said. “When I wanted to, I could throw it in the dirt and they were swinging at the pitch--I’d never been able to do that.”

Maturity on the mound has come quickly, but Suppan still has some habits that are, well, strictly freshman.

“Usually when I get nervous I chew a lot of gum,” he said. A lot? Suppan has been known to cram 15-20 pieces in his mouth before a game.

He distributed his stash to teammates Friday and had to work seven innings on one piece.

“I was chomping on it,” he said. “My mom said, ‘What are you doing? You’re blowing bubbles in your windup.’ It just gets me relaxed out there.”

Cardinal knowledge: Channel Islands fell to Royal, 4-3, in the ninth inning of a Marmonte League game Friday. The decisive run scored on a balk by sophomore Angel Aragon, who also hit four batters.

Frustrated, Coach Don Cardinal said he sees a pattern.

“We’re making the same mistakes over and over again,” he said. “There’s just no sense in it. Time after time. We’re just not using our head . . . Stupid, stupid, stupid.”

You can say that again. And again.

Royal family: Need a strategic maneuver to confuse Royal, which has won six consecutive games and eight of nine? Drive by the Highlanders’ field during practice and scream, “Coach Maye!”

First-year Coach Dan Maye has employed his father, Frank, as junior varsity coach. And Steve Maye, Dan’s younger brother, was the varsity’s pitching coach before he signed with Salinas, an independent Class-A team in the California League.

“I came here not knowing anybody, and I didn’t want an assistant who didn’t know exactly what I wanted while I tried to develop a strong program,” Dan Maye said. “I sat down with my father, told him what I wanted, and he knows what’s expected.”

Dan Maye said there have been few problems with his father as an assistant.

“The only times we’ve ever had any problems is during games, because he gets a lot more intense and gets a little too excited,” Dan Maye said. “But that’s just his nature. I just tell him to relax and not get so excited.”

The Mayes have developed Royal (10-4 overall, 4-2 in league play) into a Marmonte League contender. The Highlanders are tied with Thousand Oaks for second place.

“We’re pretty close off the field, and we call each other coach on the field,” Dan Maye said.

That’s where Marmonte League coaches can throw the Highlanders a curveball.

“It was kinda funny when my brother was here, because a kid would yell for Coach Maye and we’d all answer,” Dan Maye said. “Otherwise, the kids don’t really have any problems with it.”