Chatsworth Zeros In on No. 1 Seeding by Scoring 3-1 Victory

The City baseball championship won’t be decided until June 6 at Dodger Stadium, but the competition is over for coach of the year. It’s Tom Meusborn of Chatsworth High in a landslide.

In less than three months, he molded a team that returned only one starter into the only unbeaten West Valley League championship club in his 11 seasons as Chatsworth coach.

The Chancellors (24-1-1, 15-0 in league play) completed a remarkable regular season Tuesday with a 3-1 victory over El Camino Real at El Camino Real. It was their 19th consecutive victory and third in a row over the Conquistadores (18-8, 11-4).

Come Monday, defending City champion Chatsworth is expected to be awarded the No. 1 seeding when playoff pairings are announced.

Solid pitching, flawless defense and timely hitting have carried Chatsworth all season and worked again on Tuesday.

Left-hander Sean Richards (9-1) pitched a three-hitter, retiring eight of the last nine batters.

Richards, who came in with a 4.17 earned-run average, survived six walks by bearing down at crucial moments.

“This is probably one of the best games I’ve thrown this year,” Richards said.

Chatsworth scored two runs off Greg Acheatel (7-4) in the first inning on a run-scoring single by Brian Lee and a run-scoring ground out by Jacob Ball.

El Camino Real scored in the third inning on a bases-loaded walk.

Nick Huston drove in the Chancellors’ third run on a groundout. Huston, a center fielder, was the most valuable player in the three-game El Camino Real series. He had four putouts Tuesday and finished the series five for eight with six runs batted in.

Shortstop Matt Fisher and third baseman Ryan Barba continued their splendid fielding. They have led a Chatsworth defense that has committed 29 errors in 26 games.

“They’ve done a tremendous job,” Meusborn said of his players.