High School Baseball : Cleveland Qualifies for Playoffs

Cleveland earned a City Section 4-A Division playoff berth Wednesday with a 5-4, West Valley League win over El Camino Real. The victory in the regular-season finale for both teams clinched third place for the visiting Cavaliers (6-9, 7-12) and enabled them to avoid a tiebreaker game.

El Camino Real (8-11, 5-10) fell into a fourth-place tie with Taft and must play a tiebreaker to determine the league’s final playoff representative. The site and time of the game will be decided today.

“I feel relieved that we don’t have a tiebreaker coming up,” Cleveland Coach Ray Todd said. “It also means we won’t have to go down to the Marine League.”

Cleveland opens the playoffs Wednesday against Sylmar, an East Valley League team.

Mike Bergren, a player with a purpose, hit a sixth-inning, solo homer to break a 3-3 tie and give Cleveland the lead for good.

“A girl I’ve known for a long time is in the hospital and I had to hit one for her,” Bergren said, evoking numerous images from baseball lore. “I was thinking about it all day.”

Bergren identified the girl as Saugus High student Shelley Hoffman, who broke her leg during a dirt-bike accident on Friday the 13th.

The Cavaliers added an insurance run later in the inning when Tom Gibson scored on catcher Mike Stephenson’s errant throw to second base.

El Camino Real rallied in its half of the sixth. Jason Cohen’s double drove in pinch-runner Donald Chelius, cutting the lead to 5-4. Bobby Kim kept the rally alive with an infield single, but Cleveland pitcher Kirk Surabian ended the threat by inducing Greg Trapp to fly out and Carl McFadden to pop out.