Baseball: Cleveland wins West Valley title; Taft stuns Chatsworth

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Reseda Cleveland came away Thursday with the West Valley League championship after a 10-1 victory over Birmingham combined with Chatsworth’s 11-7 loss to Woodland Hills Taft.

Cleveland finishes 23-7 overall and 13-2 in league and will be likely awarded the No. 1 seeding for the City Section Division I playoffs.

The big surprise was fifth-place Taft (11-19, 5-10) ripping Chatsworth’s pitching staff. Six Chancellor pitchers struggled against the Toreadors, who got two-run home runs in the first inning from Jordan Berger and Cody Despain and another home run later from Rhet Montana. Alex Sawelson had four hits, including a two-run home run. Arthur Chavez pitched five innings.

Trailing, 11-4, entering its final turn at the plate, Chatsworth (26-4, 12-3) made it interesting. Andy Weissberg hit a three-run home run, his second home run of the day. Then the Chancellors put two runners aboard with two outs before the Toreadors got the final out to celebrate on their home field.

In another West Valley upset, Granada Hills defeated El Camino Real, 5-4, to improve to 6-9 in league and claim fourth place.

-- Eric Sondheimer