Venice, Sylmar, El Camino Real and Birmingham baseball advance to City Section semifinals

Coming through with clutch hits, terrific defense and strong pitching, top-seeded Venice opened the City Section Open Division baseball playoffs on Wednesday with a 4-1 win over Chatsworth, letting everyone know the 27-2 Gondoliers are a deserving No. 1 seed.

It helped that Venice took advantage of local knowledge on its home field that has high nets and short fences. Jesse Dominguez had an RBI double in the first inning by hitting the ball off the net in left field. Ryan Shepard had an RBI double in the second. Canon King hit a home run off the net in right field in the sixth.

Venice catcher Charlie Nisbet tags out Chatsworth’s Micah Klotz at home plate.

(Craig Weston)

Pitcher Noel Moreno (11-1) threw a complete game and was supported by his defense. Venice catcher Charlie Nisbet was involved in several plays, throwing out a runner trying to steal third in the first inning and tagging out a runner at the plate who tried to score from first base on a double in the fifth inning thanks to a great relay throw from shortstop Daniel Quiroz. There also was right-fielder Dylan Johnson throwing out a Chatsworth runner who failed to get back to first base while thinking of stretching it into a double.

Venice advanced to play in the semifinals Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Cal State Northridge against Sylmar. El Camino Real will play Birmingham at 3 p.m. in the first game of the semifinal doubleheader.

“It’s all coming together,” said King of the senior-dominated Gondoliers.

Chatsworth reliever Luis Zaragoza threw seven strikeouts.

Sylmar 2, Cleveland 0: Alex Martinez threw a five-hit shutout with four strikeouts for Sylmar. Matthew Torres and Michael Andrade each had two hits.

Birmingham 9, Poly 1: Sebastian Valadez had three hits and three RBIs for the Patriots. Allen Olmos threw six innings. The Patriots will face an El Camino Real team that recorded consecutive shutouts against them last week.

El Camino Real 6, Granada Hills 2: The Royals used their two top pitchers in Luke Howe and Devin Gonor to advance to the Open Division semifinals. Luigi Tanner had an RBI triple and Gavin Farley had an RBI double to help El Camino Real break a 2-2 score. Howe added two hits and two RBIs.