City Baseball Brackets Have a Balanced Look

In what appears to be a balanced and unpredictable bracket for the City Section baseball playoffs, Poly High was seeded No. 1 in the 4-A Division.

Poly (15-2 in league play), champion of the East Valley League, will open against Van Nuys in the first round Tuesday. Van Nuys finished second in the Mid-Valley League with a mark of 8-9.

The Parrots will be seeking to become the 20th consecutive team from the San Fernando Valley to win the baseball title.

The championship game will be held at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, June 3.

The top 12 teams in the 4-A bracket were seeded according to team strength rather than placement in league. “I think that’s fair,” Poly Coach Jerry Cord said, eyeballing the bracket sheet. “Or as fair as it’s going to get.”

In a pair of wild-card games Friday at 3 p.m., Birmingham (5-12 in league play) will play at Taft (10-7) and Cleveland (8-9) will play at Venice (11-6). After more than an hour of discussion, wild-card pairings were selected by drawing out of a hat.

First- and second-round games will be played Tuesday and Thursday of next week.

University (16-1), winner of the Western League, was seeded second and will open at home against Carson (11-6), the third-place team from the Pacific League.

Monroe (15-2), champion of the Mid-Valley League, will open at home against the winner of the Cleveland-Venice game. Monroe was seeded fourth.

Granada Hills, seeded third after winning the North Valley League title with a record of 11-6, will open at home against Banning. The Pilots (13-4) placed second in the Pacific League.

Chatsworth, seeded fifth after sharing the West Valley League title with El Camino Real with a record of 11-6, will open at home against Sylmar, the third-place team from the East Valley at 9-8. Chatsworth was seeded ahead of West Valley co-champion El Camino Real based on head-to-head competition.

El Camino Real will open at home against East Valley League runner-up Grant (13-4).

Kennedy, the second-place team from the North Valley, will open at Westchester (15-2). Kennedy (10-7) finished a game behind Granada Hills.

The winner of the wild-card game between Birmingham and Taft will open in the first round at San Pedro (15-2), champion of the Pacific League. Taft finished third in the West Valley; Birmingham placed third in the Mid-Valley.