CITY SECTION 4-A DIVISION BASEBALL SEMIFINALS : Chatsworth Back Again for Big Show

And the Oscar goes to . . . Dodger Stadium.

And so does the rest of the Chatsworth High baseball team.

Again.

Right-hander Oscar Bocanegra gave an in-command performance Friday, pitching a four-hitter in the heat to lead Chatsworth to a 5-0 victory over Taft in a City Section 4-A Division semifinal at Pierce College.

Next up for top-seeded Chatsworth (28-4) is the big show Monday night at Chavez Ravine, where the Chancellors will play El Camino Real for the City championship in a rematch of last season’s final, won by El Camino Real, 7-6.

It marks the third time in the past five years that El Camino Real and Chatsworth will play for the championship. Each year, Chatsworth has defeated Taft in the semifinals.

“Losing to Chatsworth,” a dejected Taft Coach Rich McKeon said, “is getting really old.”

At least this time it was over quickly. Bocanegra (5-1), a 6-foot, 160-pound junior, made short work of Taft (16-16), throwing only 64 pitches in a game that lasted less than two hours. Seven batters reached base, but Taft never had more than one baserunner at a time. Bocanegra did not allow a runner past second.

Just as quickly, Bocanegra summed up his performance.

“I was throwing strikes,” he said. “That’s my job.”

Chatsworth scored twice in the second inning on a two-run infield single by Rod Daryabigi, whose slow roller crept under the glove of charging third baseman Mike Andrisano, allowing Tony Montiel and Mike Amado to score.

In the fourth, the Chancellors struck again off junior right-hander Justin Collins (5-4) with a double by pinch-hitter Fred Farzeneh that drove in Dan Phillips and Amado.

From there, it was simply a matter of how long it would take Bocanegra to record the necessary number of outs.

“Felt really good today,” Bocanegra said. “The heat didn’t bother me at all.”

“Geez, he did a terrific job,” Chatsworth Coach Tom Meusborn said. “He really took charge of things. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

The rest of Chatsworth’s effort wasn’t much worse. The Chancellors did not commit an error, and Montiel snared hard-hit grounders at third in the second and fourth innings to short-circuit potential rallies. And while Chatsworth tallied only six hits, two accounted for four runs.

Pretty indicative of a successful season.

“We’ve got some terrific hitting and solid pitching,” Meusborn said. “All year, we’ve been steady.”

For the Chancellors, the only acceptable encore is a City championship.

“It’s nice to get back (to the City final),” senior catcher Brandon Murphy said. “That’s what this whole season was for. We got there last year and lost, so winning it was all there is to play for this year.”