Baseball: Keppel’s grand slam powers El Camino Real

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Woodland Hills El Camino Real came into league play this week with a 5-8 record, but the Conquistadores completed a two-game West Valley League sweep of Woodland Hills Taft on Thursday with a 10-3 victory.

Kyle Keppel hit a grand slam and Mitch Bluman added a three-run double. El Camino Real is 7-8 and 2-0. Taft dropped to 9-6 and 0-2.

Reseda Cleveland (7-8, 1-1) defeated Granada Hills, 10-4. Mac Bensinger had two doubles and two RBIs. G. Allen added two hits and two RBIs. Chatsworth (13-3, 2-0) scored three runs in the top of the seventh to pull out a 7-6 win over Birmingham. Adam Baslow had an RBI triple and Sean O’Connell drove in the go-ahead run. O’Connell finished with three hits.

In the Valley Mission League, Sylmar defeated San Fernando, 7-2.

In the East Valley League, Arleta (13-3, 4-0) defeated North Hollywood, 19-0. Javy Lopez and Ivan Ceja each hit two-run home runs.

In the championship game of the St. Paul tournament, Gabe Encinas struck out 11 and threw a one-hitter in St. Paul’s 4-3 victory over La Mirada. In a consolation game, St. John Bosco defeated Whittier Christian, 16-6. Kyle Peralta had four RBIs and Mike Duarte had four hits.

In the San Luis Obispo tournament, San Luis Obispo defeated Alemany, 2-1. In the Babe Herman tournament, Lakewood Mayfair (13-3) defeated Westlake, 5-4, in eight innings.Ray Plachen had two hits for Mayfair.

-- Eric Sondheimer