BASEBALL

Coach Phil Torres of Crescenta Valley is going to have a difficult task replacing senior second baseman Mark McCauley.

For 100 consecutives games over four years, McCauley has been the Falcons’ leadoff hitter. He holds school records with 342 at-bats and 144 hits. His career batting average is .421. He has made only 14 errors in 379 chances, a .963 fielding percentage.

“He’s been a guy I give the keys to the clubhouse to,” said Torres, who was a first-year coach when McCauley was a freshman. “It set the tone we were going to play the best guys, no matter how old you are.”

Crescenta Valley’s four-year record with McCauley is 76-24, including three Pacific League championships and a Division I title.

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Poly will have to play another week without its leading hitter, third baseman Gabe Pena, who cut his hand on a table and needed 10 stitches.

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The City Section seeding meeting is scheduled for Monday. Several league championships will be decided this week.

Palisades and Westchester play for the Western League title. Banning and San Pedro meet for the Marine League title. Teams that have clinched titles are Marshall in the Northern League, Locke in the Coliseum, Roosevelt in the Eastern, Chatsworth in the West Valley and San Fernando in the Valley Mission.

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Junior pitcher Neil Morrow of Birmingham was working on a no-hitter in the seventh inning last week when teammate Lucio Tapia approached Coach Rick Weber and said, “Hey, coach, do you know Neil has a no-hitter?”

Everybody in the dugout told Tapia to stay quiet, but it was too late to avoid the jinx. On the next pitch, a Cleveland batter got a hit.

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Chatsworth (23-1-1) has an 18-game winning streak, but it’s short of the school-record 24 consecutive games won by the 1988 team that was ranked No. 1 in the nation and coached by Bob Lofrano, now the coach at Pierce College.

The Chancellors finished 25-2 after being upset by San Fernando in the City semifinals.