Chatsworth Hit Parade Gets Repetitive, 28-4

Chatsworth High batted around twice in the second inning of its City Section 4-A Division playoff opener Wednesday against visiting Gardena. Eighteen batters came to the plate, 13 runners scored. The Chancellors banged out 10 hits, eight of them consecutive, and seven came on the first pitch .

Sound like the makings of a rout? More like the making of “The Last of the Mohicans” as Chatsworth took its foe’s scalp in a 28-4 massacre.

The top-seeded Chancellors (24-1) advanced to Friday’s quarterfinal round, playing at home against Sylmar, which defeated Cleveland on Wednesday, 10-6.

Every Chancellor played. Every player except starting pitcher Shawn Bowen (6-0) batted. And every batter except Reed McMackin hit safely--including senior pitcher Pierre Amado, who rapped a pinch-single to center in the sixth inning. The Chancellors lit up the scoreboard for 26 hits--the most in Coach Bob Lofrano’s 10 years with the program, according to his encyclopedic memory.

“This is the biggest run production we’ve had,” said Lofrano, who nearly injured his arm waving home baserunners from the third base coaching box. “Everything we hit fell.”

The Chancellors’ bat-o-rama included nine batters in the fourth inning, eight in the fifth inning and seven in both the third and fourth.

The score was 28-2 entering the seventh when junior Derek Wallace, just for the extra work, replaced Bowen. Wallace surrendered two runs, but first baseman Art Lowe ended the game with a leaping catch of a line drive by Aman Hicks.

“We never expected it to be this big,” Lowe said.

Neither did third baseman Joel Wolfe, who was big and bad, hammering a two-run double, two-run triple and three-run home run. Wolfe was 3 for 6 and drove in eight runs.

“This a great way to start off,” he said. “It builds our confidence. Today I just concentrated on driving the ball.”

Wolfe was not the only one. Lowe (3 for 5, three RBIs), Ty Powell (4 for 4, four runs scored), Rex McMackin (2 for 5), Rich Aude (3 for 5, 2 doubles, 4 RBIs) and David Waco (2 for 5) all got the bat well off their shoulders. But will they stay there?

“We’re going to come out and have a hard practice tomorrow,” Lowe said. “We’ll just carry it over.”

Probably all the way to next week’s City championship game at Dodger Stadium, according to Gardena Coach Mike Sakurai. “I don’t think there is good enough pitching in the City to stop their hitting,” he said.