Poly Swamps Chatsworth Amid Flood of Runs, 17-1

As a bank of dark clouds hovered stubbornly overhead Friday, the water finally fell on Chatsworth High. Precipitation it wasn’t.

Sprinklers on Chatsworth’s side of the field clicked on between the third and fourth innings, chasing the team from its dugout and prompting one boisterous fan of the opposition to suggest that it was time for the Chancellors to hit the showers.

Washing their hands of this game, in retrospect, wasn’t such a bad idea.

Chatsworth’s reign as the City Section 4-A Division champion was washed away when Poly scored 10 times in the fourth en route to a 17-1 laugher in a quarterfinal playoff game at Poly High.

Poly will face Banning in the semifinals Tuesday at a neutral site to be determined. Banning, which has not allowed a run in two playoff games, defeated Monroe, 5-0, in another quarterfinal Friday.

Poly (24-3) hammered five Chatsworth right-handers for 19 hits, 18 of which were singles. Chatsworth (18-7-1) sent four pitchers out to try their luck in the fourth, yet none could stem the tide.

“We had fire in our eyes,” Poly Coach Jerry Cord said.

And Poly had the extinguisher too, in the person of Raul Torres. In five innings, Torres (7-1) allowed one run on three hits, struck out one and walked three.

“He really turned it up a notch,” Cord said. “He needed to help us get over the Sylmar devastation.”

Sylmar twice defeated Poly two weeks ago, costing the Parrots a No. 1 ranking in the state and the outright East Valley League title. This was devastation reversed.

“It woke us up,” Torres, a senior, said of the losses to Sylmar. “It brought us back to reality.”

The Chancellors, who came in riding a nine-game winning streak and departed with their worst beating in Coach Tom Meusborn’s two-year tenure, also came crashing back to reality.

“I can’t explain it,” Meusborn said. “I don’t know what to say.”

In the fourth, about all he could muster was bring in another right-hander. Poly led, 6-1, entering the fourth and already had chased starter Anthony Moreno (6-1). Reliever Justin Jones opened the inning and was followed by Suelkie Kim, Eric Holiday and Doug Dean.

Before the inning was over, Poly had slapped out nine hits and scored 10 times to take a 16-1 lead. The beating was so lopsided, Poly’s Pedro Medina came off the bench to pinch-hit and had two hits in the fourth inning alone.

Chatsworth’s lone look at the game came in the third. With his team trailing, 4-0, and two on, Mitch Root flied to deep right for the first out. After a run scored on a ground out by Nestor Martinez, Thurman Williams lined to center to end the inning.