El Camino Real to Face Chatsworth in Final

It’s going to take an appearance at Dodger Stadium on Saturday to settle the season-long debate about who has the best baseball team in the City Section, Chatsworth or Woodland Hills El Camino Real.

The two West Valley League rivals easily took care of their semifinal playoff opponents on Tuesday. Top-seeded Chatsworth (29-3) received three hits and six runs batted in from Oliver Padre to defeat South Gate, 15-5, in six innings. Shaun Kort had four hits and threw a six-hitter as second-seeded El Camino Real (27-6) defeated Granada Hills Kennedy, 12-4.

The Conquistadores chased All-City pitcher Fabian Williamson in the second inning and finished with 15 hits against four Kennedy pitchers. Kort hit his 10th homer, a three-run shot, and Ryan Lavarnway contributed three hits, including his eighth home run.

Chatsworth scored seven runs in the sixth inning to break open an 8-5 game. Padre hit a three-run home run, Bobby Coyle had a two-run single and Mike Moustakas, who hit his school-record 12th home run, had a two-run double.

El Camino Real has beaten Chatsworth in two of three games this season.

“The season comes down to this game,” Kort said. “It’s going to be pretty exciting.”

Eric Sondheimer

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Despite late preparation, Riverside Poly looked sharp in a 4-1 victory over host Villa Park in a Southern Section Division I second-round game.

The top-seeded Bears (24-3) scored an unearned run in the first on a balk and three errors by the Spartans, who finished with six errors. They scored three more in the third when Lacurtis Mayes had a two-run double.

Villa Park (18-9-1) lost to Arcadia, 4-0, on Friday but was awarded a forfeit victory the next day after Arcadia Coach Scott McCorry was ruled to be in attendance of the game, even though he had been ejected from the previous game, which violated section rules.

The Riverside Poly staff had scouted the game at Arcadia and stayed up late afterward planning for their home game against the Apaches.

“We had thrown away all the Villa Park stuff,” Riverside Poly Coach Aaron Moore.

Dan Arritt

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Softball

Kristen Pocock hit a two-run homer in the first inning, and Jessica Johnson hit a three-run homer in the eighth as Santa Ana Mater Dei beat host Riverside Poly, 5-2, in the second round of the Southern Section Division I playoffs.

The victory avenged last season’s controversial 3-1 semifinal loss in which Poly scored the winning run on a play in which an umpire had signaled the runner left too early. But the runner was not ruled out, which would have ended the eighth inning, and Poly went on to win its first section championship.

“There was no team that we wanted to beat more than this team,” said Ashley Weber, the right fielder who retrieved Lindsey Ubrun’s double into the gap last season, then pleaded unsuccessfully with the first-base umpire. “It’s like last year, this game came down to one huge hit.”

Mater Dei (22-7) will play Anaheim Esperanza, a 3-0 winner of third-seeded Corona, on Thursday. Poly finishes 21-6-1.

Martin Henderson

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Swimming

The Palisades boys and Reseda Cleveland girls will be seeking to repeat as champions during the City Section swimming finals today at the Los Angeles Swim Stadium.

Palisades appears on course for its fourth team title in a row and 11th overall. The Dolphins, who won last year’s title without winning an event in the finals, are led by juniors Brian Johnson, Paris Hays and Peter Fishler and senior David Nonberg.

Cleveland, which won its first girls’ title last season, is trying for an encore by using its depth and points from diving. The Cavaliers did not have the top qualifying time in any event in the preliminaries but had enough second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-place qualifying marks to put themselves into position just behind the Palisades girls for the finals.

-- Lauren Peterson