City Title Is Valley’s Domain

Few if any City Section baseball finals could boast the star power of the 1979 4-A Division championship game: Granada Hills High and John Elway against Crenshaw and its multitalented prodigy, Darryl Strawberry.

Years later, Granada Hills Coach Darryl Stroh recalled that one of the game’s most vivid images was of an embarrassed Strawberry, who was pitching, slipping while fielding a squeeze bunt in the Highlanders’ 10-4 victory.

“While he laid there pounding his glove on the ground, our runner from second scored too,” said Stroh, who secured his fourth City title in five years.

Valley teams have left the rest of the City Section feeling down and out for some time, winning 23 of the past 24 4-A titles. The final tonight between Banning and El Camino Real at Dodger Stadium could extend the region’s dominance.

A look back at some of the memorable championship games:

1973

Sylmar 3, Kennedy 2

Sylmar was down to its last gasp. Kennedy, which had beaten the Spartans three times in the regular season, led, 2-1, with two out in the seventh inning, no one on base and two strikes on pinch-hitter Gary Lawrence.

Lawrence kept Sylmar’s hopes alive with a walk and pinch-runner Dale O’Brien stole second. Chuck Lyon followed with a line-drive single to force extra innings.

In the ninth, Rich Kochie’s run-scoring single won it for the Spartans, starting a Valley run of 19 consecutive major-division titles.

It was the first of six appearances in the final for Kennedy, which was in its second year of existence.

“For us to make it as an unproven commodity, a new school, was unexpected,” said Jim Anderson, who played right field as a sophomore for Kennedy and enjoyed a major-league career as an infielder. “But once we got there we expected to beat Sylmar.”

1976

Granada Hills 2, Monroe 1

Dave Cicero pitched a two-hitter to out-duel Scott Olshane and give the Highlanders their second straight title.

Granada Hills began the season 1-6 before winning eight in a row to qualify for the playoffs. “We squeaked in,” Stroh said.

Olshane pitched an outstanding game for Monroe, but a two-run single by Ron Oddo in the fourth inning was all Cicero needed.

1977

Cleveland 5, Carson 4

Good thing for Cleveland that catcher Paul Romero had been an All-City linebacker. The 5-foot-9, 197-pound Romero broke a 4-4 tie in the bottom of the seventh when he scored from third on a passed ball, knocking the ball loose from the pitcher in a collision at the plate.

“He made a head-first, rolling block,” said Marty Siegel, a Cleveland assistant.

Nine of the Cavaliers’ 13 players were members of the football team that had been routed by Banning, 34-0, in the 4-A final the previous fall. “Our idea was, we blew the football title, but we won’t blow the baseball title,” Siegel said.

1979

Granada Hills 10, Crenshaw 4

Granada Hills starter John Stevens appeared to run out of gas in the third inning, and when Stroh visited the mound, the coach could not avoid the glare of Elway, his third baseman.

“John gave me a look like, ‘What are you waiting for?’ ” Stroh recalled.

Elway had not pitched since an early season outing in which he walked six and hit three batters. Yet he allowed Crenshaw only two hits the rest of the way and struck out future major leaguer Chris Brown for the final out.

1982

Cleveland 13, Palisades 0

It’s common knowledge that Bret Saberhagen pitched the only no-hitter in City finals history. What isn’t widely known is that it took several defensive gems to preserve it.

Cavalier second baseman Tom Brandt was saddled with the indignity of ruining Saberhagen’s perfect game by committing a first-inning error. Actually, Brandt preserved the no-hitter with the play, diving to his left to smother a ground ball and making a throw to first in time for the out. But first baseman Mark Markland dropped the throw.

“Markland said in the dugout, ‘Coach, I just missed it,’ ” Cleveland Coach Leo Castro said. “For some reason, the official scorekeeper gave the error to Brandt.”

In the seventh, John La Rosa, who had replaced Markland at first, made a diving stop on a sharp ground ball and catcher Glenn Newhouse pounced on a bunt and threw out the runner by a step.

1985

Kennedy 10, Banning 9

Sophomore Kevin Farlow provided perhaps the most memorable finish in a championship game by hitting a two-out home run barely inside the left-field foul pole in the bottom of the seventh.

“He hit it high, so we weren’t sure if it was going out,” said Kennedy Coach Dick Whitney.

A bases-loaded double by George Gonzalez gave Kennedy a 6-1 lead in the second, but Banning pecked away. The Golden Cougars needed a superb relief effort from Sandy Sreden to set the stage for Farlow.

1986

Grant 5, Granada Hills 1

Grant right-hander Rodney Beck turned the final into his personal showcase, pitching a three-hitter and striking out seven.

“We couldn’t hit that slider on the outside corner,” Stroh said of Beck, now the San Francisco Giants closer and the National League leader in saves with 15.

Beck’s effort spoiled the last game for a talented group of Granada Hills seniors, who had won the title as sophomores. The Highlanders attempted six squeeze bunts but executed only one successfully.

After Beck pitched all 28 innings of the playoffs, a rule was implemented limiting pitchers to 10 innings a week. It became known as the Rodney Rule.

1987

Canoga Park 5, Poly 4

In his 37th and last season at Canoga Park, Coach Doug MacKenzie captured his first championship and his 300th career victory.

The Hunters survived a three-run home run by Poly’s Danny Gil with one out in the seventh. Mike Roberts came on in relief after the homer and, after recording a strikeout, allowed consecutive singles before ending the game with a strikeout.

“I was awfully scared,” MacKenzie said.

1990

Chatsworth 3, El Camino Real 2

Conquistador ace Pat Treend was within five outs of pitching the first shutout in a title game since Saberhagen, but underdog Chatsworth rallied for one run in the sixth and two more in the seventh to win its first title since 1983 and become the fourth team in a row to win the 4-A championship by one run.

Treend entered the game with a 12-0 record that included a victory and a save against Chatsworth. But the right-hander’s wildness late in the game helped the Chancellors erase a 2-0 deficit.

Tommy Lee, who was thrown out at home in the sixth, drove in Nestor Martinez with the winning run in the seventh on a bases-loaded squeeze.

1992

San Pedro 6, Poly 3

The Valley’s 19-year stranglehold on the 4-A title was broken by an overachieving San Pedro team that opened the season with a 16-6 loss to Montclair Prep but won 22 of its last 24 games.

The game was played under trying circumstances for Poly Coach Jerry Cord, whose eldest son, Christopher, 25, died the day before after a lengthy illness.

San Pedro’s victory ended three decades of frustration for Coach Jerry Lovarov. A winner for most of his career, Lovarov finally quieted the critics in his sports-minded town by guiding the Pirates to their only title in his 32nd season.

1994

El Camino Real 7, Chatsworth 6

An improbable comeback nearly ruined El Camino Real’s bid for a second straight 4-A title, but the Conquistadores pushed across the winning run on an error in the ninth.

Chatsworth lost to El Camino Real by the identical score in the 1993 final and it appeared the Chancellors would go quietly in the rematch. The Chancellors managed only one hit against ace Randy Wolf through six innings and trailed, 6-1.

But with one out in the seventh, Chatsworth sprang to life, rapping four hits and capitalizing on two errors to forge a 6-6 tie.

Wolf (12-3) settled down and finished the game, earning his third victory of the playoffs and a lesson in the unpredictability of baseball.

“This was the most amazing game I’ve ever played in,” Wolf said.

1995

Kennedy 3, Carson 1

A three-run home run by Kevin Serr in the bottom of the fifth broke a scoreless tie and Derek Morse pitched a four-hitter, becoming the first pitcher to limit a team to one run in a 4-A final since Grant’s Beck in 1986.

But Morse had to survive a tight situation in the seventh. With one out, Carson loaded the bases and scored a run before pinch-hitter Adam Novak hit a comebacker to Morse, who started a game-ending double play to give the Golden Cougars their first City title since 1989.

Staff writer Steve Henson contributed to this story.