Meusborn Is Perfect

Winning has become so natural for the Chatsworth baseball team, it’s easy to forget about the man pulling the strings.

But Chatsworth Coach Tom Meusborn deserves ample credit for the Chancellors’ undefeated season, which culminated with a state-record 50th consecutive victory last week in the City Section championship game.

Meusborn came into his 15th season at Chatsworth with an inexperienced nucleus of players and took a chance on two freshmen in the starting lineup, including third baseman Matt Dominguez, who finished with a school-record 64 runs batted in.

Meusborn, The Times’ baseball coach of the year, made the right moves during the early part of the season, when nine of Chatsworth’s first 17 games were decided by three runs or fewer. He then kept the team focused in the second half, when the Chancellors won 12 of their last 14 regular-season games by 10 runs or more. But Meusborn probably was at his best in the playoffs, keeping the team confident as it rallied from early deficits in both second-round and semifinal games.

In Chatsworth’s biggest test of the season in the championship game against second-seeded San Pedro, it executed to near perfection in a 7-1 victory, which earned Meusborn his fifth City title and the Chancellors a 35-0 record.

-- Dan Arritt