Teams Head Down Memory Lane

It’s flashback time for Monroe and Cleveland highs.

Monroe (13-14), seeded 16th in the City Section 4-A Division baseball playoffs, bumped off top-seeded Carson, 11-2, Tuesday behind the pitching of junior right-hander John Ennis. The victory was reminiscent of 1988 when the 15th-seeded Vikings entered the playoffs with a losing record and won the City championship.

Cleveland (16-11), on the strength of a one-hitter by senior right-hander Mike Schultz, defeated Sylmar, 3-0, to post its first playoff victory since 1982, the year Bret Saberhagen’s no-hitter in Dodger Stadium brought the Cavaliers a City title.

“People are excited around campus,” said first-year Monroe Coach Fred Pudrith, a former Crespi assistant. “But it’s only one victory. We’ll see how it goes.”

Ennis (7-4) has pitched two no-hitters this season, including a perfect game, despite being on a team that finished 7-10 in the Mid-Valley League.

Schultz has won five consecutive games for Cleveland, including a no-hitter against San Fernando and a 1-0 victory over Kennedy and ace right-hander Jon Garland.

Monroe plays today at Banning, a team the Vikings defeated in the quarterfinals in 1988. Cleveland plays at Chatsworth.

Going for three: Kennedy (21-10), which appears to be pulling out of a mid-season slump, is vying to become the first three-time City champion since Fremont won three consecutive titles from 1946-48. The Golden Cougars moved a major step forward by polishing off San Pedro, 10-1, on Tuesday without having to use Garland.

Left-hander Wes Crown (7-3), who allowed three hits and struck out 11 in six innings against San Pedro, entered the week with a 1.91 earned-run average.

After first-round victories, Kennedy and Chatsworth are the favorites to play for the City title next week at Dodger Stadium. The combined earned-run average for Crown and Garland is 1.50. Starters Greg Wold and Ismael Marin of Chatsworth have a combined ERA of 2.08.

Streak continues: Ismael Marin, a junior right-hander for Chatsworth, extended to 10 games his streak of consecutive starts with a victory.

Marin improved to 10-0 against Reseda, but he had to weather a sixth-inning shelling as Reseda parlayed five hits into a seven-run rally to chase Marin.

Pushing the facts: When pitcher Sean Douglass quit the Antelope Valley baseball team after being ordered to do, by his count, 322 push-ups at a practice, it was big news in the region. But the story has since grown, as evidenced by the following item in this week’s Sports Illustrated:

“322: Push-ups that Coach Ed t’Sas requires each member of the baseball team at Antelope Valley High in Lancaster, Calif., to perform at every practice, which caused senior pitcher Sean Douglass, a projected early round pick in next month’s draft, to quit the team.”