Saint Monica Baseball Team Eyes Berth In Playoffs:

By mid-May CIF baseball playoff berths will be determined and St. Monica is hopeful of gaining one. Although swamped twice by defending league champion St. Paul, 11-1 and 15-0, St. Monica kept its’ hopes alive last Friday by splitting a doubleheader with second place Bishop Montgomery, rallying for a 6-5 win at Marine Park after losing, 9-4. Three of the league’s teams are likely to make the playoffs and St. Monica is vying with Bosco Tech for third place. St. Monica won their only meeting and the teams will face each other twice next week. In the dramatic win over Bishop Montgomery the game was tied, 4-4 in the seventh before Bishop Momtgomery scored to go ahead. St. Monica then had two outs with nobody on base but benefitted from a walk, single, walk and catchers’ interfence to tie the game. Vince Valdez then drove in the winning run with a single. “It was pretty exciting,’’ said Coach Jack White. Rain has forced changes in the St. Monica schedule. In order to play the doubeheader Friday, permission had to be obtained from the Santa Monica Little League. However, the field wasn’t available Saturday, and a non-league game against Brentwood that was scheduled as a home game for St. Monica had to shifted to Brentwood. The game was won by Brentwood, 10-8.St. Monica had a 4-0 lead but Brentwood put together a seven-run inning. Brentwood, coached by Rob Cannone, has an 8-4 record.