Sylmar, Roosevelt Get Top Spots

Sylmar and Los Angeles Roosevelt highs were seeded first and second Monday when the City Section baseball playoff pairings were released after piling up victories in relatively weak leagues.

Woodland Hills El Camino Real, which won the heralded West Valley League by three games, was selected as the third-seeded team. The Conquistadores would have had a strong case for being the top-seeded team--if they hadn’t lost to Sylmar and Roosevelt earlier this season.

“It doesn’t matter,” El Camino Real Coach Matt LaCour said of the seedings. “You’re going to have to play them all to win this thing anyway.”

Said Sylmar Coach Gary Donatella: “To me, the one, two, three seeds--you could flip a coin. There’s not much of a difference.”

Roosevelt is trying to break the San Fernando Valley’s iron grip on section championships; Valley teams have won 28 of the last 29 titles. But the Roughriders will do well just to get past Cleveland, their first-round opponent. The Cavaliers, who defeated league rival Chatsworth in three of four meetings, were somehow relegated to No. 15.

“We’re happy to get in,” Cleveland Coach Joe Cascione said. “I didn’t think we were going to get in because we finished fourth in our league.”

The bottom half of the bracket, which includes three West Valley League teams, is the toughest. Sixth-seeded Chatsworth’s Joe Guntz will battle 11th-seeded Granada Hills Kennedy’s Adam Geery on Friday in a first-round matchup of top-notch pitchers. The Chancellors might be a good bet to win the championship because No. 6-seeded teams have won five of the last 10 titles; No. 1-seeded teams won in the other years.

A clerical error kept Coliseum League champion Crenshaw out of the playoffs. The Cougars had to forfeit four league games after two players were mistakenly left off an eligibility list sent to the section office before the start of league play. Fremont, which finished second, was awarded the league’s automatic playoff entry.