City Section Baseball Tiebreakers : El Camino Real, Monroe Advance to First Round

El Camino Real and Taft highs tied for fourth place in the West Valley League with 5-10 records, but when it came time to break that tie, the teams couldn’t have been further apart.

El Camino Real pounded out 16 hits Friday and qualified for next week’s City Section 4-A Division playoffs with a 13-1 victory over Taft in a fourth-place tiebreaker at Taft.

In another tiebreaker, Monroe hammered Birmingham, 13-4, and will go the playoffs as the Mid-Valley League’s fourth-place representative.

Sophomore right-hander Pat Treend pitched a complete game for El Camino Real (9-11) and held Taft (9-16) to three hits. Treend (3-1) struck out three and walked four.

El Camino Real held a 3-1 lead after two innings and chased Taft starter Chris Brown (3-3) with a four-run third sparked by Carl McFadden’s two-run double. McFadden, who led off the game with a triple, was 3 for 4 and drove in three runs.

Mike Stephenson increased the lead to 11-1 with a grand slam in the sixth inning.

Monroe 13, Birmingham 4--Four players each had three hits as Monroe (9-16) pounded out 18 hits. Brian Eldridge was 3 for 4 and added a triple, double, two RBIs and three runs scored. Tim Costic was 3 for 4, Joe Marquis was 3 for 5 and scored two runs and Mike Enriquez was 3 for 5.

Joey Rosenfeld, Justin Bass and Chuck Fiore each had two hits for Birmingham (8-12).