CHANCELLORS HAVE PERFECT ANSWER.

Byline: VINCENT BONSIGNORE

This was the year someone would finally topple Chatsworth High in the City Championship baseball championship game.

So San Pedro said.

But how do you one-up perfection?

Chatsworth was overrated, San Pedro kept saying, the product of an overgrown reputation and fawning experts who used past accomplishments to gauge present results.

Somebody forgot to tell the Pirates true greatness is enduring, not fleeting.

So what if Chatsworth played 34 games before the City Championship final at Dodger Stadium and won every one? Who cares that USA Today proclaimed the Chancellors the best team in the country midway through the season, and crowned them champions of the nation last year after they finished as City Champions with a 33-1 record, or that they had strung together an astounding 50 consecutive victories dating to last year?

``We won 25 games in a row!'' San Pedro and its fans continually pointed out before Tuesday. ``That means something.''

The Pirates said they weren't scared of Chatsworth and couldn't understand why anyone thought they would be. San Pedro had two players drafted into the Major League's this week, including starting pitcher Matt Kretzschmar, who waited all year to get his crack at Chatsworth.

What was there to be worried about? Not even one player for Chatsworth got drafted.

San Pedro, scared? Maybe not.

Overmatched? Most definitely.

For the fourth time in six years and the sixth time overall, Chatsworth showed how the sum of its substantial parts add up to the best team overall, beating San Pedro 7-1 at Dodger Stadium to finish a perfect season with a 35-0 record and their second City Championship in a row.

``When you're seeded No. 1 you get things like you're overrated and you're not that good, stuff like that,'' said Chatsworth second baseman Willie Cabrera. ``You got to bring it between the lines and we did that tonight.''

The Chancellors, who likely will finish as the USA Today National Champions for the second consecutive year, did it by doing the little things that championship teams do in big games.

Jason Dominguez put the finishing touches on his Chatsworth career by crafting a subtle, yet overpowering pitching performance. Dominguez, who will soon be fitted for his third championship ring, has been more dominant at times, but considering the place, the circumstances and the history at stake, he was never better, limiting the high-powered Pirates to five hits in seven innings, striking out six and walking two.

The only blemish was an unearned run in the seventh inning, although the Chancellors were already in celebration mode by then.

``We came out and knew what we could do,'' Dominguez said. ``We weren't worried about them talking.''

Offensively, Chatsworth sliced San Pedro apart with the precision of a surgeon, using the bunt, hit and runs, steals and hitting behind runners to piece together five runs over the first two innings to take command of the game.

``Who wants to be down 5-0?'' Cabrera said. ``That was big for us and heartbreaking for them.''

In the process, the Chancellors knocked a clearly shaky Kretzschmar out of the game in the second inning. Kretzschmar, who was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 22nd round of the amateur draft Tuesday, will go on to have better days in baseball. He's a talented young pitcher with a bright future. But for one day, he learned there is more to winning a championship than having overpowering stuff or the bravado of a 25-game winning streak.

It's the sense of belonging Chatsworth has at playing at Dodger Stadium, a comfort level San Pedro clearly lacked as it stumbled through the first few innings while the Chancellors performed like they play there all year.

An airtight Chatsworth defense never buckled, cleanly handling all but one play to compliment the Dominguez. San Pedro finally broke through for a run in the seventh inning, but the game was over long before that.

All that is left is to determine the Chancellors' place in history. They came into this season carrying the weight of a National Championship around their shoulder, but never once played like a team on the run from a challenge. Rather, they successfully met and overcame each and every obstacle, the scariest of which came Friday in the semifinals when they overcame a seven-run deficit in the fourth inning to beat Sylmar 10-7.

There were no stirring, stunning comebacks Tuesday - only lessons on how titles are won and dynasties sustained,.

Dominguez and a talented group of players made sure of that.

``All week long we heard about how we couldn't hit, we couldn't hit,'' Dominguez said. ``Then we come out and score five runs in the first two innings. I guess we can hit.''

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Photo:

Chatsworth's Willie Cabrera reacts after scoring from third on a single by Tom Cassidy in the first inning.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer