Stage Set for Ocean League Baseball Showdown

Since the start of play, the varsity baseball team has seemingly been on a collision course with . The reigning co-champions have kept pace with each other from the start and now the race comes down to their head-to-head meetings Tuesday and Thursday.

Santa Monica beat Inglewood 7-1 on Saturday to pull even with Culver City at 8-0 in league heading into the final two games of the regular season. If one team wins both games, it takes the league title. If the teams split the two games, they share the title for the second straight year and a coin flip will determine which gets the higher seed in the playoffs.

Culver City (13-10-1) will host the opener of the home-and-home series Tuesday at 3:15 p.m. and Santa Monica (11-16) will host the second game at the same time Thursday. 

Last season, both teams finished 8-2 in league and split the season series, each winning on the opponent's home field. This year could be more of the same, for the schools appear evenly matched in every aspect and both are coming off of impressive performances.

pitched five innings of two-hit baseball and lowered his earned run average to 1.41 in Tuesday's 11-1 win over Morningside and fellow junior followed with a shutout in the Centaurs' 14-0 rout of the Monarchs on Thursday. , also a junior, has only allowed 11 earned runs in 29 1/3 innings. 

Meanwhile, Samo junior pitched a gem against Beverly Hills in the Vikings' 13-1 victory Thursday night and senior tossed a three-hitter with 13 strikeouts Saturday against Inglewood. Both Samo aces are left-handers. 

Culver City has won four of its last five games, Samo has won six of its last seven. The Centaurs have been more dominant in league play. They have scored 100 runs and allowed 15 while Samo has scored 89 and given up 20. However, against common opponents the Vikings are 10-4 and Culver City is 8-5 this season.

Softball

The Centaurs had quite a busy week, playing four games in six days. They sandwiched a 16-11 nonleague victory over Palisades in between Ocean League wins of 11-2 over Inglewood and 15-1 over Morningside. On Saturday morning, they suffered a 8-7 setback to Santa Monica in the .

Culver City wraps up league play with a home game against archrival Beverly Hills on Tuesday at 3:15 p.m. and a road game against first-place Santa Monica at the same time Thursday.