Baseball Championships

CHICAGO -- Takashi Saito is the Dodgers' closer again -- at least that's what Saito said he was told by pitching coach Rick Honeycutt at the start of the National League division series. Saito didn't fool the Cubs in the ninth inning of Game 2, giving up two runs on two doubles and a single, but for him to pitch at all is almost a medical miracle. "For me to be here with my teammates at this time of the year," Saito said, "I really can only think that I had luck on my side."

Andrew Urbina threw a two-hitter, and Angel Araujo contributed a run-scoring single and later scored after a triple, leading Los Angeles Wilson past North Hollywood, 2-0, in the City Section Division II baseball championship game Saturday at Dodger Stadium. Urbina, a junior, said he received inspiration from a brother who died three years ago of a rare brain disease. "Before every game, I tell him to help me," Urbina said. He struck out three and walked none. The game took 1 hour 22 minutes to complete.

Granada Hills Kennedy High catcher Kevin Serr hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning and pitcher Derek Morse pitched a four-hitter to lead the Cougars to the City 4-A baseball championship Thursday with a 3-1 victory over Carson at Dodger Stadium. Serr's homer, the first in a championship game since 1987, came off Carson reliever Scott McClasky and ended four innings of frustration for top-seeded Kennedy (26-4).

SOUTHERN SECTION BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS FRIDAY AT DODGER STADIUM DIVISION 4 LA PUENTE BISHOP AMAT (28-4) VS. PALM DESERT (28-4), 4:30 P.M. Scouting report: There's not a better matchup of teams all weekend at Dodger Stadium. Bishop Amat lost to Palm Desert, 5-1, in its season opener. The Lancers won the National Classic and have played and beaten top teams all season. Sophomore Adam Alcantar is having a terrific season with a .485 average. Third baseman Rio Ruiz is a future first-round draft pick.

Behind a solid hitting attack and the pitching of Dan Choi, Fairfax High School defeated Washington, 5-2, Wednesday at Dodger Stadium to win the City 3-A Division baseball championship--its first title in 41 years. After spotting Washington (14-7) a 2-1 lead, the Lions wore down the Generals with four runs in the final three innings to win their first City title since 1949. Choi, who won all four playoff games for Fairfax, gave up two runs in the second before shutting down the Generals.

When the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants square off to settle the baseball championship of California Saturday, it will have been 129 years since the state's first baseball title was decided. On Sept. 20, 1860, at the State Fairgrounds in Sacramento, the San Francisco Eagles met the Sacramento Red Rovers for the state's championship trophy, the Silver Ball. According to Fred W.

Brand Caso trotted toward first base, then paused for a second to watch the ball disappear behind the 386-foot sign at Anaheim Stadium. He was going to enjoy this moment. Rounding third, Caso pointed to his father in the stands, then hit home plate and was mobbed by the rest of the Capistrano Valley High School baseball team. It was a great way to end a rather tumultuous high school career.

St. Bernard and Chadwick will play for their first CIF baseball championships after winning close semifinals Tuesday. St. Bernard, a 1-0 winner over Baldwin Park, will face Whittier Christian at 10 a.m. Saturday in Dodger Stadium for the 1-A title. Chadwick, a Small Schools Division finalist thanks to Tuesday's 2-1 victory over Lone Pine, will play Templeton at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Blair Field in Long Beach. St.

Diamond Bar High School's 3-2 victory over Esperanza in the Southern Section 5-A final Saturday night at Anaheim Stadium came down to one wild pitch, one quick-trigger third baseman and one kneeling shortstop. Diamond Bar (22-8) scored what turned out to be the game's winning run in the top of the seventh when Mike Hoyos scored from third on a wild pitch by Esperanza reliever Doug Saunders. The run didn't seem to mean much.

Pepperdine's Mark Wasikowski had always been told he could not buy respect, but he discovered last summer that he could find elements of it for sale in a department store. Still basking in the glow of the Waves' first NCAA baseball championship, Wasikowski was shopping in Cypress when he came upon a large mannequin in the men's sportswear department. USC, UCLA, and Nevada Las Vegas garments flanked a display that featured as its centerpiece a T-shirt celebrating Pepperdine's national title.

Once known for its powerful basketball teams in the 1990s, Glendora High can now boast about having perhaps the best baseball team in Southern California after the Tartars won their first Southern Section Division 2 championship with a 10-3 victory over Yucaipa on Saturday at The Diamond at Lake Elsinore. "I had confidence they'd come in and play to their abilities," Coach Dan Henley said. "Today was very special." From hitting to pitching to playing error-free defense, Glendora (27-2-1)

Southern Section championships Saturday at The Diamond at Lake Elsinore Division 4: Torrance (24-9) vs. Palm Desert (25-5), 10 a.m. — This should be one of the most competitive games of the day. Torrance knocked off top-seeded La Puente Bishop Amat, and that offers evidence about how good the Tartars must be. Shortstop Angelo Gumbs is a pro prospect, and second baseman Trent Gilbert has a school-record 58 hits....

The high school baseball season ends this weekend with Southern Section championship games Friday at UC Riverside and Saturday at the Diamond at Lake Elsinore. Here's why there should be lots of excitement: • Cory Hahn of Santa Ana Mater Dei has become the Kobe Bryant of Southern California baseball. Mater Dei fans should be chanting "MVP, MVP, MVP" when he steps to the plate. He's 13-1 on the mound with an earned-run average of 0.94, has hit nine home runs, and the major league team that drafts him next week will deserve great respect because it means they recognize he can play with the best despite being only 5 feet 10. • Get your radar guns polished and put aside at least three bags of peanuts for the pitching showdown of the playoffs: Adam Plutko versus Taijuan Walker in the 4:30 p.m. Division 2 final on Saturday.

UCLA and Cal State Fullerton were among the 16 regional sites selected for the Division I baseball championships, the NCAA announced Sunday. UCLA (43-13), which finished in second place behind Arizona State in the Pacific 10 Conference, will host a regional at Jackie Robinson Stadium for the second time, the first since 1986. "We had good crowds all season long and the atmosphere around the ballpark has been pretty good since day one," UCLA Coach John Savage said in a telephone interview.

Mike Scioscia will have ample opportunity in the coming months to enact change in baseball's postseason schedule, a format the Angels manager criticized heavily in October, as his team played nine playoff games in 21 days. Scioscia, along with Dodgers Manager Joe Torre, was named by Commissioner Bud Selig on Tuesday to a 14-member special committee that will address on-field issues in the game. In addition to playoff scheduling, Selig said on a conference call that the group will examine issues such as pace of game, instant replay, umpiring, the strike zone and interleague play.

Amid promises from Commissioner Bud Selig to condense baseball's lengthy postseason, the players offer this suggestion: extend the first round from best of five to best of seven. "There's a lot of sentiment for a seven-game division series," Michael Weiner, executive director of the players union, said during a conference call Wednesday. Weiner said such a change would most likely be subject to collective bargaining, meaning it would probably not be implemented until 2012. He said Selig could propose other changes -- reducing the number of off days, for instance -- that could be approved without major negotiations.

Josh Gingrich kept reminding himself that pitching is sometimes a sport of survival. "I figured that if I could get through the fourth inning," he said, "I could keep going." But Gingrich, the Edison High School baseball team's starter, watched the end of the fourth inning as an outfielder instead of the mound. Long Beach Millikan tagged him for three hits and four runs in the fourth on the way to an 8-2 victory in the Southern Section 5-A championship game Saturday night at Anaheim Stadium.

They celebrated with Nick Adenhart in victory, dousing his No. 34 jersey in champagne and beer after clinching the division title in September and holding it aloft as they left the Fenway Park field after beating the Boston Red Sox in the first round of the playoffs. Sunday night, the Angels cried with Adenhart in defeat, holding close to their teammate, the 22-year-old pitcher who was killed in an April 9 automobile crash just hours after throwing six shutout innings the night before.