Baseball: Karkenny is making MVP push

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There are lots of good candidates for City Section player of the year emerging two weeks before the playoffs begin.

Junior pitcher Jonathan Hernandez of Wilmington Banning, junior pitcher Jose Cardona of Woodland Hills El Camino Real, senior pitcher John Mata of San Pedro and senior pitcher-first baseman Mitch Bluman of El Camino Real are standing out, but junior outfielder-pitcher Steven Karkenny of Chatsworth has begun to separate himself.

Karkenny is batting .444 with 21 runs batted in and zero errors as a right fielder. As a closer, he’s 5-1 with two saves and has a 1.46 earned-run average. He also has a 4.2 grade-point average.

Of course, the MVP usually comes from the team that wins the City title, and we won’t find out until May 28 who that team is.

But entering this week, Karkenny has made his presence known, and the Chancellors will need him to come through for big games against El Camino Real on Tuesday and Thursday.

-- Eric Sondheimer