Chancellors Don’t Need Any Excuses

Sometimes a little adversity brings out the best in teenagers. Look at all the excuses Chatsworth High’s top-ranked baseball team could have used if it hadn’t beaten West Valley League rival El Camino Real, 8-6, Tuesday.

* Catcher Loren Devries showed up with six stitches on his chin after getting hit by a cement warmup bat last week, then spilled more blood when his pinky finger was sliced sliding into second. At one point, he came off the field with a bandage clinging from his chin. “I wasn’t coming out,” he said.

* Shortstop Matt Fisher was suspended a couple hours before the game by school officials for giving his early release permit to his girlfriend.

* Third baseman Danny Eisenberg woke up with a 102-degree temperature, then was forced to play shortstop, a position he hadn’t played since the first game last season.

* Ace pitcher Mike Kunes (7-1) couldn’t take the mound because the Chancellors needed him at first base, requiring No. 2 pitcher Ismael Marin to face unbeaten left-hander Kurt Birkins (7-0) of El Camino Real in what appeared to be a real mismatch.

Excuses, excuses, excuses. Except Chatsworth (21-2, 10-1) found a way to beat the Conquistadores (11-7, 9-2) before one of the largest crowds for a City Section game this season. More than 250 people sat in the bleachers and stood high above on El Camino Real’s walkway along the third-base line to watch the best high school baseball rivalry of the 1990s.

That’s right--forget Crespi-Notre Dame, Sylmar-Poly, Kennedy-Chatsworth, Royal-Simi Valley and Westlake-Thousand Oaks. Chatsworth and El Camino Real have won four City 4-A titles between them in the 1990s. Three times they have played each other at Dodger Stadium. Eight of their previous 28 games have been decided by one run.

“Oh God, it’s a war,” Chatsworth second baseman Kevin O’Hara said. “This is what you come out to play for.”

Unlike the NBA, where a player can choke his coach and have his punishment reduced, Chatsworth administrators offer no favoritism to athletes. Good for them. Fisher’s mistake wasn’t major, but he drew an immediate suspension nonetheless.

“I was hoping they would [let me play],” he said, “but you got to learn sometime.”

Without Fisher at shortstop, Chatsworth Coach Tom Meusborn decided he had too many defensive liabilities to let Kunes pitch.I would have gone to Las Vegas and bet all the money in my wallet on Birkins. He was the hottest pitcher in the Valley. There are top NCAA Division I schools starting to think about offering him a scholarship. No way did I think the Chancellors could beat Birkins without Kunes pitching.

Marin almost didn’t make it out of the first inning. He gave up a two-run triple to sophomore Conor Jackson. Scott Sellz was warming up in the bullpen in the third and fourth innings. But Marin made it to the sixth, allowing five hits and left with Chatsworth holding a 4-3 lead. Then the Chancellors knocked out a tiring Birkins with four runs in the seventh.

Chatsworth made only one error--an errant pickoff throw by Sellz. El Camino Real had three errors, including a dropped fly ball and a misplayed pop-up.

“We didn’t play defense,” Conquistador Coach Mike Maio said. “But we didn’t quit.”

No one expected anything less from the defending City 4-A champion Conquistadores.

“It’s fun when you get playoff-caliber baseball like this,” Eisenberg said.

Chatsworth players left with renewed respect for El Camino Real’s Woody Cliffords, perhaps the best player in the City. He hit a first-inning double and a sixth-inning home run over the center-field fence. Formerly a first baseman, Cliffords also made a running catch in center field.

“He’s tough,” Devries said. “You have to make the best pitch to him every time. Otherwise, he’s going to hit it hard.”

The two teams are scheduled to play Thursday at Chatsworth, then May 14 at Chatsworth. A fourth meeting during the City playoffs, maybe on June 11 at Dodger Stadium, is expected.

“It’s just the first of many games,” Cliffords said.

Eric Sondheimer’s local column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422.