Chatsworth Rallies as Murphy Awakens

Memo from the Chatsworth High coaching staff to slumping catcher Brandon Murphy:

Get your head out of the sand. Get the bats out of your belfry. Or something like that.

Anyway, it worked.

“He’d been thinking too much up there,” Chatsworth Coach Tom Meusborn said. “We told him to just get the bat head out front.”

After the Chancellors’ stunning 11-10 victory over Birmingham in a City Section 4-A Division quarterfinal Wednesday at Chatsworth, Murphy must now get his head out of the clouds.

Murphy’s two-out, run-scoring single capped a three-run rally in the bottom of the seventh as top-seeded Chatsworth pulled the rug from under upset-minded Birmingham.

The top-seeded Chancellors (27-4) will face West Valley League rival Taft in the semifinals Friday at a neutral site to be determined.

Before the sixth inning, when Murphy contributed a single as the Chancellors scored three times to pare the Braves’ lead to 10-8, precious little had gone right. Which pretty much covers Murphy’s production heading into the game.

“I haven’t been doing much of anything up there lately,” Murphy said.

The fateful seventh began with Birmingham clinging to a two-run lead. Tiring Birmingham reliever Jamie Darnell (5-2) recorded the first out on a line drive to left, but Mike Amado singled and Eric Rovner followed with a roller up the middle that had double play written all over it.

However, Birmingham failed to record even one out when shortstop Todd Challgren took his eye off the ball and dropped it for an error. The immensity of the play was not difficult to gauge.

“It was huuuge ,” Meusborn said.

A groundout by Rod Daryabigi advanced the runners to set the stage for Daryabigi’s twin brother, Ray. Ray cashed in the error by launching a two-run double into the gap in left-center, sending Darnell for cover.

“We didn’t give up until the last three outs of the seventh inning,” Ray said.

Or, in this case? “Four outs,” Ray said.

Reliever Pedro Rodriguez walked Bryan LaCour intentionally before grooving a first-pitch fastball to Murphy, who whacked a single to left that took a bad bounce over the head of Steve Brown to put a cap on the frenetic ending. It was Murphy’s third consecutive hit.

“I think after that first hit, I started feeling it,” said Murphy, who was three for five.

It was a numbing afternoon, at least in the early stages. Birmingham (15-14) buried Chatsworth starter Jim DeBiase (10-3) by jumping to a 7-4 lead with a six-run fourth.

DeBiase was charged with all seven runs, five earned. Before the Chatsworth offense kicked in, the Braves held a 10-5 lead.

Ho-hum.

“Man, we’ve had our backs against the wall like this five or six times already this year,” Meusborn said, smiling. “Somehow, we’ve found a way.”