LA City Baseball Playoffs: Open Division Semifinals Set; No. 1 Monroe Goes Down

The road to Dodger Stadium on May 23 is more clear, just one win separates the final four teams remaining in the Open Division.

Sylmar advanced to the second round of the City Section Division I playoffs after a win over Marshall Wednesday afternoon. | Sylmar Baseball

The Los Angeles City Section baseball playoffs are underway, and for the Open Division and Division I participants, dreams of playing at Dodger Stadium are on the line. It's a City Section tradition unlike any other.

Granada Hills Charter, Carson and El Camino Real — the 2025 Open champs — got a step closer with victories on Wednesday.

Granada Hills 2, Bell 0 (8 innings): Luke Chau anchored the Highlanders from the bump with three strikeouts and allowing just two hits in a complete-game performance. Bell's ace Jayden Rojas punched out 10 batters threw seven innings. An RBI single from Nick Penaranda followed by another run via a bunt gave Granada Hills the road victory.

El Camino Real 11, South Gate 0: The game was over in 5 innings due to mercy rule. Jackson Sellz gave up just one hit. JJ Saffie was 3 for 3 with a homer and four RBIs.

Carson 6, Garfield 5: Xavier Allen delivered a walk-off double to keep the Colts alive and advance to the semifinals.

Birmingham will host Banning Thursday afternoon.

The Open Division semifinals will be played on Wednesday, May 20 at Cal State Northridge in a double header at 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.

—CIF SOUTHERN SECTION D1 ROUNDUP

OTHER NOTABLE SCORES, NOTES

Sylmar 7, Marshall 0: Matthew Torres threw a complete game with six strikeouts. Rickee Luevano had a HR and three RBIs in the Division I opener. The Spartans are the No. 1 seed.

Kennedy 13, Monroe 3: The special season for Monroe is over. Despite being the No. 1 seed in Division II, Kennedy's more competitive schedule during the regular season paid off.

Palisades 1, Narbonne 0 (8 innings): Ethan Davis with the heroics to win the game with a walk-off single. Caleb Gitlin had 11 strikeouts from the bump.

WEST VALLEY LEAGUE: All WVL teams won in the opening round. Taft beat San Pedro 13-9. Cleveland beat Maywood CES 18-0 and Chatsworth topped North Hollywood 5-4. All in Division I.

CITY BASEBALL PLAYOFF BRACKETS

—OPEN DIVISION
—DIVISION I
—DIVISION II
—DIVISON III

CIF SOUTHERN SECTION BRACKETS

• —DIVISION 1
• —DIVISION 2
• —DIVISION 3
• —DIVISION 4
• —DIVISION 5
• —DIVISION 6
• —DIVISION 7
• —DIVISION 8
• —DIVISION 9

POOL PLAY MATCHUPS FRIDAY

All 1-0 teams will play each other while the 0-1 teams face off on Friday. The teams that go 2-0 automatically advance to the quarterfinals on May 22. The 0-2 teams will be eliminated. The two remaining 1-1 teams will play a third game against each other on May 19.

POOL A: Norco at Notre Dame; Ayala at Maranatha
POOL B: Harvard-Westlake at Huntington Beach; Temecula at La Mirada
POOL C: Sierra Canyon at St. John Bosco; Oaks Christian at Cypress
POOL D: Orange Lutheran at Corona; Corona Santiago at Etiwanda