Granada Hills receives No. 1 seed for City Section Open Division baseball playoffs

Granada Hills received the No. 1 seed Saturday for the City Section Open Division baseball playoffs. The Highlanders swept defending City champion Birmingham this week to win a fourth straight West Valley League title.

There are 12 teams in the Open Division, with the top four seeds getting byes and opening play on Friday. The semifinals will be May 21 at Pepperdine and the championship game is May 25 at Dodger Stadium.

Birmingham is seeded No. 2, Carson is No. 3 and Bell No. 4. Granada Hills will play the winner of Wednesday’s playoff opener between El Camino Real and Narbonne. Birmingham will play the winner of Taft-San Pedro. Carson will take on the winner of Cleveland-Legacy and Bell will play the winner of Sylmar-Poly.

Easton Hawk, a UCLA commit, has been the Highlanders’ top pitcher, with Alex Schmidt emerging as a solid No. 2. Birmingham has its ace, Michael Figueroa, but lost its No. 2 pitcher to injury, which could mean trouble for the Patriots.

Carson made it to last season’s final at Dodger Stadium and rolled to the Marine League title under first-year coach Michael Kunipo-Aguirre.

Garfield is the top seed in Division I.

High School Sports

High school baseball: City Section playoff pairings

Granada Hills has been seeded No. 1 in the City Section Open Division baseball playoffs. Here’s a division-by-division look at the pairings.

May 11, 2024