Baseball: Birmingham wins City Section Division I championship

When your first baseman is willing to run through a padded railing at Dodger Stadium and suffer a gash above his eye trying to catch a pop fly, you know you have a championship team.

That was the scene on Saturday afternoon. There were two outs in the bottom of the seventh, and Audelio Camacho of Birmingham tried to catch the final out. Instead, he landed in the seats, cut his forehead and had to be treated. He missed the final out.

Adrian Rodriguez of Birmingham struck out Garrett Kueber, giving Birmingham a 6-3 victory over Chatsworth and its first Division I championship since 1969.

Birmingham came in with a .217 team batting average, but the Patriots delivered when they had to. Freshman Justin Rorick broke a 1-1 tie with an RBI triple in the sixth. He also had an RBI sacrifice fly in the seventh. Victor Robles had an RBI single in the sixth. Ryan Mendoza had an RBI single in the seventh. Ray Ruvalcaba had an RBI double in the fourth.

Jonathan Russomano threw 5 2/3 innings, allowing four hits while striking out six. Chatsworth closed to 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth when two runs scored on a throwing error. Rodriguez was brought in and issued a walk to load the bases. But he got a fly out to end the threat.

Russomano retired the first 11 batters of the game. Chatsworth freshman pitcher Tommy Palomera retired the first nine batters. But when Palomera was pulled in the sixth after Rorick’s triple, Chatsworth was able to get five hits off Josh Garcia.

Birmingham finished with a 19-14 record under Coach Matt Mowry.

“We knew we were the best team in the City from day one,” said Rodriguez, who is a junior like Russomano. “We always said it after every win and every loss and we proved it.”