Baseball: Carson emerges as surprise City Section team under first-year Coach Chuck Berrington

Chuck Berrington knows how to coach. He was head coach at Westlake, Newbury Park, Taft and Providence.

When he took over the Carson program this season, the Colts were expected to need some time to develop because they were loaded with young players. But Carson is 14-10 overall, 4-0 in the Marine League and has won eight of its last nine games.

“After getting beat three times by Chatsworth, we’ve learned to play baseball,” said Berrington, who commutes from his home in Thousand Oaks.

Carson has a rising young talent in freshman shortstop Ja’Craron Bellinger, who’s batting .382 and distinguished himself in the fall as the Colts’ starting quarterback in football.

Jose Quezada has become the Colts’ No. 1 pitcher. Carson has already swept Marine League power Narbonne.

Carson’s turnaround came after a losing trip to Las Vegas.

“I was sitting in the bus in Las Vegas after going 1-3 and thinking, ‘When are we going to turn this around?’ They’re so fun to coach,” Berrington said.

Of course, there’s many challenges ahead, such as rivalry games against Banning and San Pedro. Carson is on probation for issues involving players during games, but Berrington said everyone has been behaving.

“The umpires tell me, ‘These kids are good kids,’” he said. “They’ve been awesome.”

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