Baseball best: Adzick (as usual), Galetta

IT HAPPENS once a decade, on average. Exactly on average, in fact.

We can say that now because today we're presenting the Daily News' 30th annual All-City Baseball Team and for just the third occasion, the first team includes a 3-year honoree.

His name is Mark Adzick, and he's a lefthanded pitcher from Penn Charter. He's also a Wake Forest signee, an 18th-round Phillies draft choice and our choice for Pitcher of the Year.

Although a strained abdominal muscle kept Adzick, a 5-year varsity performer, off the mound for close to a month, he nevertheless finished with a 7-1 overall record, a 1.78 earned run average and a strikeout-plus per inning.

That ERA would have been much lower if not for one poor outing that shortly preceded his pitching shutdown; he did play first base and hit well for much of the season.

In PC's final league game, Adzick returned to mound action for the first time in 27 days and spun a two-hitter as the Quakers prevented Chestnut Hill Academy from winning an outright Inter-Ac title. No balls left the infield.

For trivia buffs, the others to earn first team All-City honors for three years were Northeast first baseman Howie Freiling (1982-84) and Archbishop Ryan righthander John Price (1998-2000).

Our Player of the Year also comes from the Inter-Ac. He's third baseman Mike Galetta, of Haverford School, and the lefty swinger, who's bound for Boston College, is known for nonstop thumping.

Galetta this season hit .482 with 35 RBI. Almost half of his 40 hits went for extra bases (nine doubles, two triples, seven homers) and he especially proved his mettle by mashing two dingers in a game against a fellow first-teamer, Chestnut Hill Academy's Anthony Cafagna.

Galetta's career stats show a .456 average with 147 hits, 112 RBI and 17 homers. Although arm tenderness kept him from pitching much this season, he did finish his Fords years with 18 wins and 184 strikeouts in 146 innings. *