Sports
Chargers Are Well-Armed for VIBL Playoffs
Agoura High, which will play at Saugus on Thursday in a first-round playoff game, has some momentum entering the postseason.
The Agoura High baseball team lives by a simple motto, and pitcher Jordan Shulman explained it best. "It's not how you start, it's how you finish,'' he said.
Though cliché, the Chargers have managed to make it work.
Agoura (8-10) opened Valley Invitational Baseball League play with losses in seven consecutive games. The group turned things around at the midway point of the season, won six of eight games, and entered the playoff as one of the hotter teams in the league.
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Agoura, which earned the No. 22 seed, opens up the postseason on the road on Thursday against No. 11 Saugus.
If the Chargers are victorious, they'll play against the winner of the No. 6 Mission Valley and No. 27 Woodland Hills Taft game on Saturday.
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Beyond that, No. 3 Simi Valley Royal and No. 2 Valencia loom on the other side of the bracket. Chatsworth was awarded the VIBL top seed in the playoffs.
"We have some momentum. We're ready to play. We know that we can beat anybody if we play our game,'' Shulman said. "We're playing our best baseball of the summer right now and it's the best time to be doing that. We want to keep this going.''
Shulman has been a workhorse on the mound for Agoura, but he doesn't figure to pitch against Saugus (9-7). Daniel Kolodin or Blake Sack will start.
Shulman would be ready and available for Agoura' second round game on Saturday, provided the Chargers advance. He ranks among the league leaders in several categories, including earned run average, innings pitched and strikeouts.
But there is not much of a drop-off between Shulman, Kolodin and Sack.
Kolodin has a league-high 40 strikeouts in 33 innings. Sack is second in wins with four, one victory behind Valencia's Blake Roberge.
Saugus will have to capitalize on its opportunities against the Chargers pitching staff or it could end up being a long and frustrating day for the Centurions.
"Our hurlers have done a great job all summer long and we don't expect things to change anytime soon,'' Agoura coach Dennis Reitz said. "The pitching has carried us."
"Our hitting is starting to come around too. It's taken a while for the guys to swing it consistently, but once the bats finally start getting hot, like the rest of our team is hot, there's no team that we're not capable of beating," Reitz said. "We're ready for the playoffs.''
