Baseball: It’s a San Fernando-Kennedy showdown
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
I don’t know who’s more excited, the alumni of San Fernando and Granada Hills Kennedy or the players. Thursday’s City Section Division I quarterfinal game at Kennedy between the Tigers and Golden Cougars is going to bring out the fans en masse.
‘It’s going to be huge,’ San Fernando Coach Armando Gomez said. ‘Everybody’s been calling.’
These two Valley Mission League rivals met in a two-game series to end the regular season. Alberto Flores of Kennedy shut out the Tigers in one game, and David Lira of San Fernando won the second game. Now they meet on the mound Thursday.
At least their playoff bracket is pretty competitive. The other quarterfinal in their bracket has a good hitting Narbonne team facing Woodland Hills El Camino Real without Jose Cardona on the mound.
The other bracket contains four West Valley League teams, topped by No. 1-seeded Chatsworth. The Chancellors will be heavy favorites to beat Woodland Hills Taft on Thursday, then the winner of Granada Hills-Birmingham next week. Yes, Taft defeated Chatsworth once in league play, then Chatsworth beat the Toreadors, 28-0. Or 27-0. There’s debate over what the final score really was.
Next week, all four winners can come back with their No. 1 pitchers in the semifinals, because they will be held on Wednesday in a doubleheader at USC. The championship is June 4 at Dodger Stadium.
-- Eric Sondheimer