Those fences at Dodger Stadium don’t seem so distant when Westchester High School is taking aim at them.

Three over-the-fence home runs and a combined 21 runs in two years at the home of the Dodgers have marked the two-time City Section Division II champion Comets as a team that comes out of the gate swinging.

As Westchester coach Seka Edwards noted following Saturday’s 10-3 rout of fellow Western League school Venice in the final, he wants his team to take a certain approach.

“My philosophy as a coach is to be aggressive,” he said. “I want them swinging the bat.

“These kids spend a lot of time on their own hitting bucket after bucket of balls and it’s paid off.”

It paid off with a .365 team batting average, seven runs per game and nearly a home run per game.

A year after watching Chris Jacobs hit two three-run home runs in an 11-1 win over Monroe at Dodger Stadium, second baseman Josh Gilder crushed a two-run shot into the pavilion in left-center in the sixth inning.

It was no surprise the junior called his fifth homer of the season with Kenny Peoples-Walls aboard the most memorable.

“It was an unbelievable feeling, a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Gilder said of his blast.

He had much the same feeling about Westchester (22-8) repeating as champions.

“At the beginning of the season, this was our dream,” he said. “It was amazing to be able to finish off our dream.”

Gilder went 2-for-4 with three RBIs, catcher Andrew Carter went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and Peoples-Walls went 3-for-3, scored three runs and drove in another to highlight a 10-hit attack.

“It feels great to win back-to-back titles,” Edwards said. “We worked these kids hard and I’m glad all the hard work paid off. It was our goal from the beginning to get back to this beautiful stadium.”

Westchester took control early, scoring three runs in the first and three in the second for a 6-0 lead.

Gilder singled in one run and Carter knocked in the other two in the first. Peoples-Walls and Carter had RBI-singles in the second. Domonique Starks, who walked in the second, scored on an error.

Venice (19-12), which lost all three meetings this year to Westchester, got two back in the third after Jamaal Moore (10-1) walked a couple of batters. Junior Campos chased home one run with a single and the other run scored as Daniel Hordo was grounding out.

Westchester answered in the fifth with two runs, one scoring on a single by Anthony Noriega and the other on an error.

Moore, who struck out five and walked three in a six-hit complete game, gave up a third run in the sixth on singles to Nolan Sax and Anthony Smith (2-for-3). Pinch hitter Alexander scored the run on a ground out.

Though not at his sharpest, Moore closed out the sixth and seventh innings despite giving up a leadoff single to Gabe Lopez in the seventh. He then got Campos (2-for-4) to hit into a 6-4-3 double play. Hordo grounded to second to end the game.

“Moore fought hard, threw strikes and relied on the defense behind him,” Edwards said.

“To be honest, I didn’t have my best stuff,” Moore said. “I just tried to go out there and do my best.”

Westchester will be bumped up to Division I next year, which is just fine with Edwards.

“This team is full of juniors so I don’t think that will faze us,” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing how good we really are.”

One of the juniors who had a quiet game (0 for 2), but was instrumental in the Comets getting as far as they did was third baseman/pitcher Robert Gsellman.

He reported late to baseball after playing on the State Division I champion basketball team. Despite the late start, he led the Comets in hitting (.627), home runs (eight) and RBIs (37). He was also 6-1 on the mound.

“He turned our season around when he joined the batting order,” Edwards said of the Western League MVP. “We were losing a lot of early games 2-1 and 3-1. When he got here, we started winning those games.”

Division I final
El Camino Real 9, San Pedro 8
Down to its last out and down a run, El Camino Real got off the deck to stun San Pedro, 9-8 in the City Division I title game Saturday at Dodger Stadium.

The Pirates (24-6) were on the verge of an 8-7 victory when Jake Mills singled to center with one out. John Mata, the fourth San Pedro pitcher, got pinch hitter Josh Heinhold on a fly to right.

But Justin Scovel, who had hit a three-run triple in the fourth inning to give the Conquistadores a 5-3 lead, smashed a full-count pitch to the same spot for another RBI-triple, this one tying the score, 8-8. Scovel then scored on a wild pitch to give ECR (19-11) its sixth City title.

San Pedro was led by Jacob Johnson (2-for-3, two RBIs), Danny Matienza (2-for-4, RBI) and Nathan Etheridge (2-for-4, two RBIs.