Monroe, San Fernando to Meet for City Title

The City Section 4-A division baseball final at Dodger Stadium tonight at 7:30 will not be a meeting of strangers. Monroe High and San Fernando, Mid-Valley League rivals, will play for the title.

Neither team entered the playoffs as a strong contender. San Fernando, with a 14-6 record, finished second in league play. Monroe (12-16) won a tiebreaker against Birmingham to qualify as the league’s fourth-place representative.

After losing three starters who were hitting better than .300 to academic eligibility, however, Monroe has surprisingly managed to fill the holes with junior varsity players and substitutes. Only three starters are seniors, and two are sophomores, including left-handed pitcher-first baseman Sean Henson (3-3), tonight’s scheduled starter.

San Fernando will counter with either sophomore left-hander Hector De La Cruz, who has a 4-0 record and a 1.66 earned-run average, or senior left-hander Rudy Vargas (3-1 and 1.55). Both were all-league selections and will be backed by reliever Vince Ortega.

Both teams are led by their shortstops. Monroe’s Brian Eldridge finished the regular season with a .478 batting average and hasn’t slowed down in the playoffs. He has 24 hits in his last 35 at-bats. San Fernando’s Albert Torres batted a school-record .514 in league play.

Meanwhile, the opponents in the 3-A final at 4 p.m., Bell and University, also have something in common. Both have had to get past perennial power Venice in their climbs to success.

Bell, the defending 3-A champion, scored two runs in the seventh inning of the 1987 final and surprised 3-time defending champion Venice, 7-5, winning the first baseball title in the Eagles’ 62-year history. Bell won the Eastern League title again this season.

University wrested the Western League title away from Venice en route to a 22-10-1 record and the No. 1 berth in the playoffs. University beat Dorsey, Huntington Park and Marshall on the way to the final.