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Granada Hills receives No. 1 seed for City Section Open Division baseball playoffs

Sophomore Easton Hawk of Granada Hills struck out four in relief in a 3-3 tie against Moorpark.
Easton Hawk of Granada Hills is the ace pitcher for the No. 1-seeded team in the City Section Open Division baseball playoffs. (Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Granada Hills received the No. 1 seed Saturday for the City Section Open Division baseball playoffs. The Highlanders swept defending City champion Birmingham this week to win a fourth straight West Valley League title.

There are 12 teams in the Open Division, with the top four seeds getting byes and opening play on Friday. The semifinals will be May 21 at Pepperdine and the championship game is May 25 at Dodger Stadium.

Birmingham is seeded No. 2, Carson is No. 3 and Bell No. 4. Granada Hills will play the winner of Wednesday's playoff opener between El Camino Real and Narbonne. Birmingham will play the winner of Taft-San Pedro. Carson will take on the winner of Cleveland-Legacy and Bell will play the winner of Sylmar-Poly.

Easton Hawk, a UCLA commit, has been the Highlanders' top pitcher, with Alex Schmidt emerging as a solid No. 2. Birmingham has its ace, Michael Figueroa, but lost its No. 2 pitcher to injury, which could mean trouble for the Patriots.

Carson made it to last season's final at Dodger Stadium and rolled to the Marine League title under first-year coach Michael Kunipo-Aguirre.

Garfield is the top seed in Division I.

Read more: High school baseball: City Section playoff pairings

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.