Baseball: El Toro 9, Tesoro 0

Advantage, El Toro.

The South Coast League baseball title will play out this week, and El Toro guaranteed itself a piece of the championship with a 9-0 victory Tuesday over Tesoro, the team it was tied with before the game.

The regular season concludes on Thursday at Tesoro with the Titans playing host to the Chargers, who have won both league meetings by shutout.

Because of that, El Toro (23-6, 8-3) has guaranteed that it will enter the Southern Section Division 1 playoffs next week as the first-place entry from the league, even if it loses to Tesoro (18-9-1, 8-4) in the South Coast finale.

That means El Toro, ranked No. 7 in the division, is guaranteed a first-round home game; Tesoro could end up playing another second-place team on the road. A victory Thursday at home could go a long way toward giving giving the Titans the benefit of the doubt from the playoff committee.

The score Tuesday was 3-0 until El Toro scored six in the sixth inning, highlighted by a grand slam from Mitchell Tollman—his first homer of the season.

Pitcher Stephen Villines got the victory with a five-hitter. He struck out seven and walked none.