Kunes Able to Polish Off Gem for Chatsworth

Junior left-hander Mike Kunes threw a two-hitter and Chatsworth High defeated Van Nuys, 8-0, in a City Section 4-A first-round baseball game Friday at Chatsworth.

Kunes (11-1), who retired 11 consecutive batters to start the game, struck out six and walked one in recording his third shutout.

Chatsworth (27-3), top-seeded in the division and ranked No. 2 in the region by The Times at the end of the regular season, opened the scoring on a two-run home run by Matt Cassel in the third inning.

The Chancellors, who will host Monroe on Tuesday in a quarterfinal game, parlayed four hits, a walk and an error into four runs in the fifth.

Van Nuys starter Jose Jimenez and reliever Angel Barajas surrendered nine hits, six for extra bases. Barajas had the only two hits for the Wolves (13-14).

Chatsworth left fielder Bryan Gant had three hits, scored three runs and stole three bases. Matt Fisher had two hits.

In other 4-A first-round games:

Sylmar 3, Palisades 2--Junior right-hander Ivan Hernandez pitched a four-hitter with 12 strikeouts, but the No. 2-seeded Spartans (21-6) had to score two unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth to erase a 2-1 deficit.

Hernandez (10-2) led off the sixth with a walk, moved to second base on a sacrifice and kept going to third, forcing an errant throw that allowed him to score the tying run.

Ricardo Zamora reached on a throwing error and scored the go-ahead run on Jordan Plasencia’s single.

Hernandez retired the Dolphins (18-14) in order in the seventh.

Hernandez’ single scored Plasencia in the first inning.

Kennedy 6, Venice 1--Right-hander Jack Cassel (8-3) held Venice (10-12) to three hits and struck out eight in a game at Kennedy.

The Golden Cougars (23-8) scored all their runs in the first inning on four hits and two errors. Venice’s run in the fifth was unearned.

Cassel, first baseman Tim Arroyo and left fielder Dave Hernandez each had two hits.

Kennedy will host Westchester in a quarterfinal game on Tuesday.

Carson 3, Taft 2--The Colts , seeded No. 3, scored the winning run on a fielding error in the bottom of the sixth.

Taft (10-15) led, 2-1, on Darnel Westbrook’s two-run triple in the fifth.

Carson (24-8) tied the score, 1-1, in the bottom half of the inning on a two-out single by Jorge Gonzalez.

Taft’s Justin Wade (3-8) allowed four hits, struck out nine and walked two.

The Toreadors managed only three hits.

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Matchups

Quarterfinals

3 p.m. Tuesday

* (8) Monroe at (1) Chatsworth

* (5) Westchester at (4) Kennedy

* (6) El Camino Real at (3) Carson

* (7) Banning at (2) Sylmar

Seeds noted in parenthesis