Baseball: Cleveland starts fast in 5-0 semifinal victory

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Top-seeded Reseda Cleveland was supposed to be in Wednesday’s City Section Division I semifinal. Underdog Granada Hills, the 12th seed, wasn’t. And it showed as the Highlanders fell behind early and never recovered in a 5-0 loss to Cleveland.

Juan Perez scored from third on an error three batters into the game. Shortly thereafter, Robert Almendarez, Jeremy Stern and Spencer Horowitz rounded home on Brady Moore’s bases-clearing double to give Cleveland a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

Cleveland pitchers John Wilson and David Carver scattered three hits the rest of the way. Making matters worse was the fact that the Cavaliers added an insurance run in the fourth when Perez singled and scored on an Almendarez hit.

‘We haven’t taken any team lightly in the playoffs, so we weren’t going to overlook Granada Hills, and we won’t do anything different against Chatsworth this weekend,’’ Cleveland coach Greg Venger said. ‘We’re going to get after the Chancellors on Saturday at Dodger Stadium. We’re going to battle it out. No. 1 versus No. 2. That’s the way it should be.’’

The championship game is set for 2 p.m. on Saturday at Dodger Stadium.

-- Sean Ceglinsky