City Baseball Teams Facing Tiebreakers

Although today marks the final day of the City Section’s regular season in baseball, as many as six Valley teams could play later this week in tiebreaker contests to determine final entries in the 4-A Division playoffs.

The three Valley leagues each send four teams to the playoffs, which begin next Wednesday. Ties through the first three places in the standings are broken using the criterion of head-to-head competition or coin flips. But with the league’s final berth at stake, fourth-place ties are settled on the field.

In the East Valley League, Poly (16-1 in league play), Sylmar (11-6) and North Hollywood (10-7) have clinched the league’s playoff berths. Grant (9-8) leads Fairfax (8-9) by one game, but if Grant loses to Sylmar and Fairfax defeats Hollywood (0-15), a fourth-place tiebreaker would be played.

Tiebreaker games must be played no later than Friday.

Kennedy (11-3) can clinch the Mid-Valley title with a win over Birmingham (5-9), but if the Golden Cougars stumble, and Granada Hills (10-4) and San Fernando (10-4) win as expected, three teams will share the league championship. A coin flip would determine the playoff order.

If Monroe (5-9), which plays San Fernando, and Birmingham both win or both lose, they must play a tiebreaker.

Chatsworth (14-0) and Canoga Park (9-5) are the West Valley’s first- and second-place playoff entries, and the winner of today’s game between Cleveland (5-9) and El Camino Real (5-9) automatically qualifies for postseason play.

Taft (5-9) can prevent a tiebreaker by beating Canoga Park to tie for third with either El Camino Real or Cleveland. A Taft loss would force a tiebreaker.

That game could become a round-robin playoff if Reseda (5-10) upsets Chatsworth, creating a three-way fourth-place tie. The winner of a coin flip earns a bye, then plays the winner of the game between the other two teams to determine the last playoff entry.