AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL : Pressure Off as Woodland Hills East Wins, Clinches Area 6 Playoff Berth

The members of the Woodland Hills East American Legion team have played so well under pressure that they’ve taken the pressure off.

With a 6-3 victory over Las Virgenes in the double-elimination District 20 playoffs Friday at Birmingham High, Woodland Hills East clinched one of the district’s two berths in the Area 6 playoffs, which begin next week at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium.

“Jackie Robinson is a great place to play,” said Brandon Witkow, who hit a two-run home run and picked up the save.

Woodland Hills East (17-7) should consider itself lucky to be playing anywhere. It needed to win its last five regular-season games just to make the District 20 playoffs.

“We knew if we just let our natural abilities take over, we’d be in every game,” said Woodland Hills East third baseman Jon Schaeffer, who was four for five.

Now that it is the only unbeaten team in the playoffs with a 3-0 record, Woodland Hills East can lose twice and finish no worse than second.

By winning its eighth straight, Woodland Hills East snapped Las Virgenes’ 12-game winning streak.

Las Virgenes (17-7) will play Woodland Hills West in an elimination game at 11 a.m. today at Birmingham. After that game, Woodland Hills East will face Van Nuys East, which eliminated Palmdale East, 2-1.

Las Virgenes pulled within 3-2 in the top of the fifth, but Witkow homered to left with Schaeffer at second to increase the lead to 5-2. Las Virgenes added a run in the seventh, but gave it back in the bottom of the inning when Schaeffer scored after second baseman Jared Dahl dropped a popup,

Warren Stewart (6-1) pitched the first seven innings for the victory. Witkow picked up his first save, giving up one hit in two innings. Las Virgenes right-hander Jason Warren (5-2) gave up 11 hits and all of Woodland Hills East’s runs in six-plus innings.

Van Nuys East 2, Palmdale East 1--Left-hander Chris Garza pitched a two-hitter and Francisco Dongo drove in both runs with a double in the seventh inning, helping top-seeded Van Nuys East avoid elimination in a game played earlier at Birmingham.

Garza (3-2), who struck out nine and walked six, took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before giving up a leadoff triple to Eddie Wenkunas.

Van Nuys East (21-3), which lost to Palmdale East (14-10) in its playoff opener, wasn’t doing much with Palmdale East’s pitchers.

Brian Welch started, but came out because of a sore arm after one inning. Left-hander David Glick (5-3) replaced him and held Van Nuys East without a hit until the sixth inning, when Cesar Martinez led off with a single.

“When (Garza) throws a great game and we don’t support him, it’s like it’s going to waste,” Dongo said. “The first time against these guys, we didn’t do much, and we didn’t want a repeat of that.”

Garza led off the seventh with a single and took second on a passed ball. Ryan Stromsborg walked, and both runners moved up on another passed ball. Dongo worked the count full, then hit a mistake.

“It was right down the middle,” he said. “The infield was in, so I just wanted to hit it over their heads.”

After Garza lost his no-hitter and gave up a run in the bottom of the inning, he toughened. He struck out five in the final three innings of a 135-pitch outing.