Baseball: A look at City playoffs

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The City Section Division I playoffs will present a second-chance opportunity for Woodland Hills Taft, the fifth-place finisher in the West Valley League. The Toreadors were one of the last teams chosen, aided by their 11-7 upset victory in the league finale against Chatsworth.

They’ll open the playoffs with a play-in game Monday against Granada Hills Kennedy at home, with the winner advancing to a Wednesday matchup against top-seeded Cleveland.

Taft came close to beating Cleveland earlier this season, and Cleveland Coach Greg Venger is a former Taft coach and a Taft graduate. If Cleveland avoids looking past its first-round opponent, the Cavaliers should find themselves in the championship game on May 30 at Dodger Stadium.

The best opening-round matchups are Banning at Palisades and Sun Valley Poly at Harbor City Narbonne. Banning has won 12 of its last 14 games and could pull off the upset. Poly won its last nine East Valley League games and could offer strong competition to Narbonne. Roosevelt at El Camino Real is also intriguing, but Roosevelt has been so inconsistent no one knows which team will show up.

Sylmar won the Valley Mission League and can’t be overlooked as the No. 5 seed. Chatsworth is the mystery team. The Chancellors’ confidence has to be shaken by the breakdown in their pitching the last two weeks. But they get to play three home playoff games, making it difficult for them not to reach the final.

So it still looks like a Chatsworth-Cleveland final.

-- Eric Sondheimer