The Arundel and Northeast high school baseball teams each took theirplaces in state public school history last weekend.

Under Bernie Walter, Arundel is the first school to notch five state baseball championships, while Northeast under Harry Lentz is the first public school team to go 24-0.

No question the Eagles of Northeast were the best in the Pasadenaschool's history and the 24-year run of Coach Lentz.

At Arundel, Walter says this year's edition -- with eight hitters at .326 or better, two outstanding pitchers in Zach Collins and Jeff Beard and a defense that boasted a state record 21 double plays -- was his "most complete team."

So the obvious questions: Did Northeast prove it was the best in the county and state this year?

Was this year's Arundel club the best in that school's history?

This is not one of those"questions without answers" column, sports fans. I've got the answers, or at least my opinions, to those two big "Q's."

The answer to No. 1 is an emphatic yes, while the answer to the second one is no.

No doubt Northeast was the county and state's best in 1991. In a normal year, a Class 4A team winning a state championship would be the clear choice over a Class 2A champion. Toughness of schedule and justbetter overall talent would be the factors in making the 4A team thebest no matter what the records.

But when you become the first togo 24-0 and you do it by beating up on the 4A schools, you deserve to be called the best. That's what Northeast did.

The Eagles defeated all nine county 4A schools, including Arundel. Northeast hammered Arundel, 14-4, and Walter is quick to give the Eagles their due.

"They were definitely the best," said the 18-year Wildcat coach. "Theybeat everybody, all the 4A schools they played including us. Northeast had a really good hitting club."

The numbers attest to that, with the Eagles outscoring the opposition in their incredible 24-game run, 326-59, including 65-7 in the four playoff victories.

Before this season, a host of state public school teams had gone 22-0, with Bowie of Prince George's County accomplishing the feat in 1981 and 1982. The Bulldogs of Coach Bill "Bumps" Vaughan extended that streak 10games into the '83 campaign to set the state record of 54 wins in a row.

This year Northeast and Class 3A Thomas Stone of Charles County became the first teams to go 23-0, but Stone lost its state final to Paint Branch, 1-0, while Northeast ripped Hammond of Howard County, 15-3.

Baseball scouts and veteran observers agree that this Northeast team probably could have won the 4A, 8A, 10A, whatever -- the Eagles were that good. In fact, Northeast was the best high school baseball team in Maryland, bar none, including Calvert Hall, the Maryland Scholastic Association champ in Baltimore, and Paint Branch.

It would be pretty interesting to see what Northeast would do against sophomore sensation Ryan Lambert and Paint Branch. I think the Eagles would smoke the guy. Lambert is an outstanding high school pitcher, ashis 20-1 record over two years indicates, but I don't think his basic two-pitch (fastball and change) repertoire would work over seven innings against Northeast.

I really believe that facing the likes ofDonnie Shump (season and career record RBI totals of 45 and 81 and six home runs), Craig Everett (four homers, 30 RBI), Rich Spiegel (four homers, 35 RBI), Russ Curry (two homers, 38 RBI) and Derek Dolch (three homers, 28 RBI), Lambert would get ripped.

If nobody in Anne Arundel County could get those guys out (they averaged 13.5 runs a game), then how would some 10th-grader from what was not that strong a league in Montgomery County?

As for the Arundel team, it was a great one that surprised a lot of people by sweeping preseason favorite Old Mill in three straight, including the Region IV title game by 7-0. That was no small task, considering the Patriots won it all in 1989and were state semifinalists last year with several key players returning for this year.

Early in the season, it was Walter who so adeptly pointed out that Old Mill had a lot of underclassmen playing andthat it just might be overrated. He was right, and his Wildcats proved it.

Arundel went 20-4, including the 8-1 triumph over Perry Hall in the state finale Saturday night at McCurdy Field in Frederick, and Walter said it was "the best defensive team we've had."

When reminded of the seven errors committed in the Northeast game and the five in a 5-2 loss at Calvert Hall in Towson, Walter quickly answered, "Oh, when they had a bad game, they had a bad

game, but if you take the whole season into consideration, this was a great defensive team."

The state-record 21 double plays (old record was 20 by the 1990 Arundel team) puts this team's wizardry with the gloves in perspective. Yes, it was a great defensive team and with the pitching Collins(8-1) and Beard (10-1), plus the hard-hitting lineup that had no outs, I don't think this team was any better than the 1987 state champion, the '86 upset 3-2 loser in the region final to Woodlawn, or the Wildcats' first state championship team of 1976.

"Well, each of those teams accomplished something in different ways, and I guess the only way to determine who was the best would be to put them in a tournament together and let them play against one another," said Walter.

That is impossible, so we can have our fun comparing the teams and arguing over who was the best. It's my strong opinion that the '76 teamwas Walter's best ever. Nine guys on that team, four of whom were seniors in '76, ended up with college baseball scholarships and two signed pro contracts.

The two who signed comprised the greatest pitching tandem in county history. They were right-handers Neal Herrick and Frank Parreira. Herrick was a junior in '76, while Parreira was a senior.

Parreira received a baseball scholarship to Johns Hopkins University and became a Division II All-American with the Blue Jays. After college, he signed with the Minnesota Twins.

Herrick was drafted on the 12th round by the California Angels his senior year of '77(team was 20-3) after leading Arundel to back-to-back state championships, but he accepted a baseball scholarship to the University of Maryland.

By his junior year at College Park, Herrick was eligible again for the draft, and the Baltimore Orioles took him in the seventh round as an outfielder. He played a couple of years in the Orioles'organization, making it as high as the Class A team in Hagerstown, before being released.

"Herrick and Parreira were the two best pitchers on the same team ever," said Walter.

Consider this. In the 22-1 state championship year of '76, Parreira had a county and state record two no-hitters, tying former big league hurler Moose Haas of Franklin (1974). Old Mill's Scott Wharton tied Haas and Parreira in 1978.

Parreira also had a county and state record four shutouts that year, a record he still shares with several others, including Beard from this year's team.

The stylish right-hander, who possessed a back-breaking curveball that he could get over, had three saves and 10 complete games. Herrick was 12-0 that year, working 81 1/3 innings, and until this year when Charlie Buckheit of Northeast finished his high school career at 30-3 was the county's all-time winning pitcher at 27-4.

That team had more speed than any in county history. Herrick, who rotated at third and on the mound with Parreira (both were excellent hitters), was the slowest on the Wildcat team at 6.9 seconds inthe 60-yard --.

Second baseman Chuck Hebron and shortstop Kenny Buch were hotter on the base paths than this May heat wave we've been having. Hebron and Buch, complete players offensively and defensively, ran 6.5 to 6.6 each.

Hebron, who graduated in '77, was 85-for-86in stolen bases in his collegiate career at Salisbury State and received a free-agent tryout with the National Football League Seattle Seahawks in 1982 as a pass receiver. He was the quintessential second baseman of the '70s and even today is as good as anybody who ever played there in this county.

Buch went on to play at the University ofMaryland and for the Johnny's national championship 19-and-under team.

The three outfielders on that '76 team in Keith Fluker (Maryland), Dennis Hanratty (Western Maryland) and Mark Matreese (Anne Arundel and Oregon State U.) all could run as well. That trio averaged about 6.8, and Fluker and Hanratty were county junior high 100-yard -- co-champs before coming to Arundel. Dave Fischbach was a catcher who was a 6.8 runner.

There never has been a county team with that kind of pro speed, two pitchers, overall offense and defense and the know-how to win such as that one. It was the team that played its best under pressure in an era of fewer schools and fiercer competition.

The '87 (21-3, state champ) and '86 (20-1, region finalist) Arundel teams boasted the best catcher the school ever had in Steve Keppler, infielder Pat True and great pitching. The '86 team had left-handers Dennis Neagle, the Player of the Year now pitching AAA for the MinnesotaTwins, and Greg Scott, plus right-hander Bryan Beauchemin (Maryland).

The following year, Arundel won the state title with left-handers Kyle Coffman and Steve Walter and Beauchemin.

Those were great teams but not with the ability of the '76 team.

So, all this begs the question: Was the 1976 Arundel team the best in county history or was this year's Northeast team or the 1989 state 4A champion Old Millsquad that was 20-1, including a 20-3 bashing of Montgomery County'sBethesda-Chevy Chase?

I'll answer that in Friday's "Sidelines," because it's going to take awhile to do it.