DeBiase’s 1-Hitter Helps Chatsworth Eliminate Grant : High school baseball: Top-seeded Chancellors stymie Lancers’ bid for consecutive upsets.

Thanks to ace Jim DeBiase, Chatsworth High avoided being the second consecutive upset victim of Grant on Friday in the opening round of the City Section 4-A Division baseball playoffs.

DeBiase, a senior right-hander, allowed only three batters to reach base while tossing a one-hitter with five strikeouts to lead the top-seeded Chancellors to a 3-0 victory.

Chatsworth (26-4) will play host to Birmingham (15-13) on Wednesday. Birmingham needed nine innings to down San Pedro, 9-8, in another first-round game.

DeBiase (10-1) yielded a leadoff walk and a bunt single in the first inning, then retired 18 of the final 19 batters, including the final 10. “I’ve seen him strike out more, but I thought he did a real nice job today,” Chatsworth Coach Tom Meusborn said. “Once he got a lead, he was nails.”

Grant (11-13), which defeated Valley Pac-8 Conference champion Sylmar on Monday to gain a playoff berth, held Chatsworth scoreless through four innings with the pitching of right-hander Marc Scorza and flashy running catches by center fielder Adam Frank and left fielder Diego Ferriera.

Scorza struck out three and scattered three singles over four innings. Frank chased down two line drives to thwart a potential rally in the fourth and Ferriera made a running catch near the line in the fifth.

Chatsworth scored all its runs in the fifth off right-hander Tony Iovino (4-5), who walked two batters and committed two throwing errors. Tony Montiel’s one-out, bases-loaded double drove in Ray Daryabigi and Bryan LaCour. Mike Amado followed with a sacrifice fly to drive in Brandon Murphy.

“I told our kids that we really turned it around this year,” Grant Coach Jeremy Lawrence said. “Chatsworth learned that Grant’s gonna be a program to watch in the years to come.”

Afterward, Meusborn held a lengthy team meeting.

“We made a few mistakes and I don’t think we did a good job in certain situations,” Meusborn said. “At this time of year, it’s the little details that make a difference.”

Chatsworth managed only six hits and stranded nine runners. At least DeBiase was impressive.

“I guess it was one of my better games today,” he said.