Baseball: The way to beat Chatsworth

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Chatsworth doesn’t lose very often, particularly to City Section teams. But Granada Hills Kennedy showed Wednesday night what it takes to beat the Chancellors, and it’s using the strategy Coach Tom Meusborn has relied on to win eight City titles.

No errors, good pitching and wait for the other team to crack. That has been the secret to Meusborn’s success at Chatsworth, and Kennedy executed to perfection in a 3-0 victory.

I can’t remember the last time Kennedy pitchers threw back-to-back shutouts, but that’s what junior Ryan Cruz and senior Lenny Diaz have done. It might have been 2006, when Kennedy last won the City title behind pitchers Fabian Williamson and Jacob Miranda.

The question is who in the West Valley League will be able to challenge Chatsworth? El Camino Real isn’t playing particularly well. Cleveland is young and inexperienced. Granada Hills shows potential. Taft is displaying some early signs of having pitching. Birmingham has pitcher Kevin Torres.

But it takes mental toughness to play seven innings of error-free baseball to beat the Chancellors. Kennedy did it, and now the Golden Cougars just have to keep improving and they might find themselves at Dodger Stadium on May 29.

-- Eric Sondheimer