Baseball: Toven’s glove and arm key Chatsworth victory

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It was a matter of inches that decided Chatsworth’s 4-3 victory over Reseda Cleveland on Friday in a game that may have decided the West Valley League championship.

Twice, the Cavaliers had their hearts broken by marvelous defensive plays from Chatsworth senior shortstop Kasey Toven.

In the sixth inning, Brady Moore lined a double to the fence in left-center, and G. Allen tried to score from first. Center fielder Mike Renner threw the ball to his cutoff man, Toven, who fired a perfect throw to catcher Carlos Escobar Jr., who tagged out a sliding Allen at the plate to wipe out a potential tying run.

Then in the bottom of the seventh, with the tying run on third, Jeremy Stearn hit a line drive up the middle. Toven went to his left and made the catch for the final out.

Chatsworth (25-3, 11-2) pulled into a first-place tie with Cleveland (21-7, 11-2) with two league games to play, but the Chancellors now hold the tiebreaker edge by virtue of having beaten the Cavaliers two out of three games. That means if they defeat Granada Hills and Wooden Hills Taft in their final two games, they’ll earn the No. 1 seeding from the West Valley and the likely No. 1 seeding for the City Section Division I playoffs.

Chatsworth scored all its runs off John Wilson (8-1) in the fourth inning, getting RBI singles from Escobar and Ryan Cooperstone and a two-run single by Andrew Klausmeier (4-0), who picked up the pitching victory, going six-plus innings, striking out six and allowing seven hits. Cooperstone got the save.

In another West Valley game, Woodland Hills El Camino Real (21-7, 9-4) defeated Lake Balboa Birmingham, 14-4, with sophomore Jose Cardona improving to 8-1. Michael Booth had seven RBIs.

-- Eric Sondheimer