Fremont clinches share of league title

With its coach smiling proudly while players engaged in a celebratory dog pile, Los Angeles Fremont showed Monday what can happen when a baseball team executes the fundamentals and plays without making errors.

The Pathfinders defeated Crenshaw, 4-3, at Crenshaw to clinch at least a share of the Coliseum League championship. Having already beaten Crenshaw (8-3, 8-2 in league play) twice this season, Fremont (16-9, 9-2) will enter the City Section Division II playoffs as the top-seeded team from the league.

Fremont rallied from a 3-0 deficit, tying the score in fifth inning on a run-scoring single by Robby Buenfil and a two-run single by Carlos Garcia. The Pathfinders scored the winning run in the sixth when Ricardo Chagollan scored from third base on a wild pitch.

Garcia (6-0), an All-City shortstop last season as a freshman, threw a complete game, relying on his teammates to make plays, such as catcher Jonas Barron, who threw out four runners trying to steal.

Coach Curtis Johnson could not have been more excited for his players because last week they had touched a low, losing to Locke in a league game.

“I told the guys we have an A team and a B team,” Johnson said. “If our A team shows up and we make no errors and play with heart, we could get this game today, and the guys came together, backed each other and made plays the entire time.”

Crenshaw had seemed in control of the game. Geoffrey Norwood had a run-scoring triple and Evan Santa Cruz hit an inside-the-park home run to support left-hander Keymon Thomas. But baserunning mistakes kept Fremont within striking distance, and the Pathfinders waited for Garcia to deliver his baseball magic.

He stands only 5 feet 8, but Garcia has the skills to play for any team in the City Section. The Cougars walked him twice before he came through with his clutch two-run single to tie the score. And he finished with a flourish on the mound, striking out Le’Jon Baker to end the game in a one-two-three seventh.

As much as teams in urban areas get criticized for their skills, this game was played in less than two hours, with both teams making the routine defensive plays while displaying competence and competitiveness every step of the way.

The difference was that Garcia proved to be one tough competitor under pressure situations.

“I told him, ‘I’m going to put it in your hands. I need you to get it for me,’ ” Johnson said. “I trusted him with the ball and he came through.”

[email protected]