BASEBALL

This is a challenging week for Birmingham, which is in third place in the West Valley League. The Patriots (16-8, 5-5) play at Chatsworth (19-1-1, 10-0) today and host El Camino Real (15-6, 8-2) on Thursday.

By finishing third in perhaps the toughest league in the City Section, the Patriots would earn an at-large berth in the City playoffs and set the stage for future success. Birmingham’s top five batters are freshmen or sophomores.

Sophomore catcher Jose Carrillo is batting .432 with 10 doubles. Freshman Junior Garcia is batting .413 with 25 RBIs. Also contributing are sophomores Raul Campos (.380) and Lucio Tapia (.339), and freshman Luis Parra (.348).

*

Eddie Camacho, Sylmar’s top outfielder, is finally out of his slump. He started the season two for 17, but in the last two weeks he’s 16 for 27 with 16 RBIs.

“Eddie Camacho is red hot,” Coach Gary Donatella said.

*

A year ago, Matt Friedrichsen of Hart hit 11 home runs. Only last week did he hit his first two home runs of the season.

“I’m hoping it will ignite him a little bit,” Coach Jim Ozella said.

Friedrichsen’s average had dipped to .121. It’s up to .182. Friedrichsen started slowly after recovering from a broken hand.