CHATSWORTH AVENGES LOSS TO ECR : CHATSWORTH 8, ECR 4.

Byline: Lee Barnathan Daily News Staff Writer

They came off the field with barely a sign of celebration, yet the Chatsworth baseball players were satisfied.

This was defending City champion El Camino Real they beat 8-4 Tuesday in a West Valley League opener - the same school that beat the Chancellors in last year's final at Dodgers Stadium.

``The week before, the day before, it's all we think about,'' winning pitcher Mike Kunes said. ``We concentrate on the game at hand, but El Camino is in the back of our heads.''

In other words, as top-ranked Chatsworth (15-2, 8-0) swept Cleveland last week, ECR (14-4, 6-3) was on their minds. When the Chancellors beat Kennedy Monday, they were looking to Tuesday.

They also were thinking, as center fielder Chad Redfern said, ``Doesn't matter until you win at Dodger Stadium, but beating them three times last year was nice.''

Hence, the lack of celebration after Redfern homered and drove in three and scored three runs, Charles Kenny hit a solo shot and Kunes improved to 6-1 with a complete-game eight-hitter with five strikeouts.

Twice ECR made a comeback, only to have Chatsworth responded with more runs. The Conquistadores cut the lead to 3-2 in the second inning on an RBI double by Ryan Gunches and an RBI single by Mike Leduc. But Kenney answered with his home run in the bottom half.

A two-run single by Sean McElroy put ECR down by two, 6-4, in the fifth inning, but Chatsworth, thanks to two errors, answered with two unearned runs.

Redfern has been all over the lineup, starting the season at leadoff before moving to sixth and now hitting cleanup. The secret to his new success is twofold: He works with his father, former major-leaguer Pete Redfern and he lowered his bat in his stance.

The bat position has helped him swing faster. His father provides exercises in mental conditioning.

``Harsh criticism to help me out,'' Chad said. ``He takes me in the back (yard) and I hit off a tee.''

A lack of mental conditioning is what did in El Camino Real, ECR coach Bob Ganslee said. After the team committed three errors and lost a couple of other balls in the sun, a player dug his spikes into the Chatsworth logo painted on the field and started tearing it up. A Chatsworth assistant spotted it, and an embarrassed Ganslee apologized.

``We are a funny group sometimes,'' he said. ``We were flat today. Typical, we're going to go out and ground up their `CC' after we play poorly. That's the type of thing that costs us ballgames sometimes.''

Josh Deneau took the loss. He gave up six earned runs and three home runs (Jeff Spector hit a two-run shot in the first), walked three and struck out two.

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PHOTO El Camino Real right fielder Sean McElroy misplays a fly ball after losing it in the sun in Tuesday's loss to Chatsworth.

Tom Mendoza/Daily News