Baseball: West Valley League starts with Chatsworth-Birmingham showdown

Chatsworth Coach Tom Meusborn gets welcomed back to West Valley League play on Wednesday when the Chancellors (7-3) open league action hosting defending City champion Birmingham (4-5).

The two teams moved up the start of league play by a week because both will be competing in the Boras Classic next month. The last time the two teams met was at Dodger Stadium in last year’s championship game won by Birmingham.

It’s going to be quite a good pitching duel on Wednesday, with Birmingham’s Adrian Rodriguez, last season’s City player of the year, scheduled to face Josh Garcia. On Friday in the second game at Birmingham, Jonathan Russomano will likely take on Tommy Palomera. Hits figure to be tough to come by in each game.

Birmingham has struggled with its hitting of late, but playing Chatsworth should bring out the best in the Patriots. All-City shortstop Sam Shaikin leads Chatsworth with 15 hits.

Meusborn, who spent last season as an assistant coach at Cal State Northridge before returning this season to Chatsworth, has had his team face a difficult nonleague schedule. The Chancellors’ only losses have come to top 25 teams Harvard-Westlake, Alemany and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.

The winner of the West Valley League usually has a good chance of being the No. 1 seed in the City Section Division I playoffs because the league is clearly the best in the City Section.

Twitter:@LATSondheimer