Top Playoff Teams Really Pitch In

The seeded teams in the Southern Section Division I baseball playoffs have such premium pitching, hitting could be reduced to a lost art during first-round play Friday.

Lakewood, whose staff has produced 10 shutouts this season, is seeded No. 1, followed by Huntington Beach, Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley and Riverside Poly.

The Lancers (24-6), who will play host to Camarillo (17-10), have been led this season by the three-man rotation of senior right-handers Danny Johnson (6-3, 1.13 earned-run average) and Josh Williams (8-2, 1.74) and junior right-hander Justin Wheeler (8-1, 1.61).

Huntington Beach (17-9), which won its third league title since 1922, plays host to Redlands (18-7). The Oilers sport a three-deep rotation of senior right-handers -- Nathan Keadle, Colin Balester and Jordan Hargrave -- and the staff has a combined ERA of 2.60.

Capistrano Valley (19-6-1), which plays host to Bell Gardens (11-15), has a team ERA of 2.41 and is led by senior right-handers Jason Corder and Kevin Stedman, each with eight victories.

Riverside Poly (20-5) had given up only four runs in its previous four games before giving up 13 to Moreno Valley Canyon Springs in a regular-season finale that had no bearing on the Ivy League race. The Bears play host to Glendora (18-7).

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The baseball season is over for most Southland freshmen players, but not for Rob Rasmussen of Pasadena Poly and Logan Grimes of Brentwood, who are preparing for perhaps the biggest games of their brief high school careers.

Rasmussen, a left-hander who is 12-0 with a 1.72 ERA, will start against Grimes (6-3, 2.36), another lefty, in a Southern Section Division V first-round game Friday at Pasadena Poly.

Brentwood (10-14) defeated Los Angeles Salesian, 4-3, in a wild-card game Tuesday, setting up its meeting with top-seeded Pasadena Poly (18-2).

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Junior Trevor Bell, a shortstop-pitcher from Crescenta Valley, has been selected to the West team for the AFLAC All-American Baseball game.

The game will be played Aug. 6 at Aberdeen, Md.

-- Dan Arritt