Unbeaten Chatsworth Deserves Top Ranking

After two months and 27 consecutive victories, Chatsworth has finally moved into the No. 1 spot in The Times’ high school baseball rankings.

Why did it take so long?

There was skepticism among coaches, fans, even sportswriters, over Chatsworth’s unbeaten record because of a perceived weak schedule.

But any team that is still unbeaten at this point in the baseball season deserves respect.

No City Section team has gone unbeaten since North Hills Monroe in 1971. The last Southern Section team to pull off an undefeated season was Santa Maria St. Joseph in 1998.

Perfection is a difficult task. One hot pitcher or one bad game defensively can result in defeat. But Chatsworth (27-0), with four games left in its regular season, has a chance to achieve perfection because it keeps exploiting mistakes and exposing weaknesses of every opponent.

The latest victim on Monday was West Valley League rival Woodland Hills El Camino Real, which lost, 24-3, in a game stopped after five innings because of the 10-run mercy rule. Among Chatsworth’s 20 hits were nine doubles and four home runs. Ten of Chatsworth’s last 12 victories have come via the mercy rule.

What’s a team supposed to do?

“They know how to win,” said El Camino Real pitcher Jordan Brandt, who came closest to beating Chatsworth, in a 2-1 loss on March 25.

Brandt stayed on the bench Monday, feeling helpless as senior left-hander Chad Boyd was given the start. Boyd didn’t make it out of the second inning after three walks and three hit batters. And that’s the problem facing Chatsworth. Pitchers have trouble throwing strikes, which leads to big innings.

“I was kind of speechless sitting in the dugout,” Brandt said.

There’s much to admire about Chatsworth, which wasn’t supposed to equal last season’s 33-1 national championship team. But Coach Tom Meusborn stresses pitching, defense and two-strike hitting, and no team is executing better than the Chancellors.

Just examine the season of second baseman Willie Cabrera, who played in only six games last year because of a knee injury. He got a single, double and three-run home run Monday to tie the school record with 53 hits. He’s batting .514, had a 15-game hitting streak and might be the best unsigned senior hitter in Southern California.

Freshman third baseman Matt Dominguez had three hits and five runs batted in, raising his school-record RBI total to 55, just 13 from the state record.

The Chancellors haven’t needed to use UC Irvine-bound closer Bryan Petersen in weeks. He has five saves, an 0.84 earned-run average and 28 strikeouts in 16 1/3 innings.

What’s the secret to Chatsworth’s success?

“We get after it,” Cabrera said. “We know it’s not going to be easy, and we have that mind-set. We treat everybody the same. We look for a win and expect it. We keep a level pace and don’t try to be bigger than the game.”

Strong pitching is required to knock off the Chancellors. So far, Jason Dominguez (8-0) and Jake Norton (8-0) have been able to throw strikes and let the defense do the rest.

Only San Pedro, with unbeaten, hard-throwing Matt Kretzchmar (8-0), appears to have a pitcher capable of challenging the Chancellors in the City playoffs. The problem for the Pirates is they’ll have to beat several tough San Fernando Valley teams just to make it to Dodger Stadium.

Some people will insist Villa Park, Encino Crespi or Valencia deserve to be ranked ahead of Chatsworth because they’ve all played tougher schedules.

“I’ve never had to justify our schedule in the past,” Meusborn said.

For whatever reason, Chatsworth has yet to face a top senior pitcher. It could happen at some point in the final eight games.

“When that time comes, we’ll have to bear down,” Cabrera said. “That’s the fun part of baseball. You can’t go through baseball without being challenged.”

*

Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.