Franklin Set to Defend Its 3-A Title : Baseball: The No. 2 seed will begin first round of City playoffs Tuesday at home against Fremont. Top seeded Bell faces Jordan.

The Franklin High baseball team will set out to defend its City Section 3-A Division title on Tuesday as the first round of the City 3-A playoffs begin.

The Panthers (20-4-1), winners of the Northern Conference title, are the No. 2 seed and will open at home against Fremont.

“We are finally starting to gel as a team and this is the right time to do it,� Franklin Coach Rick Campbell said. “Our role players are starting to do their job and there has to be an entire team effort in order to be successful in the playoffs.�

It’s been a team effort all year long for top-seeded Bell, which finished a perfect 16-0 in Southeastern Conference play for the first time in school history.

Bell (25-2) opens at home against Jordan.

Here is a look at the other first-round games:

South Gate (No. 3 seed) vs. Hamilton; Narbonne (4) vs. Eagle Rock; Lincoln (5) vs. Garfield; Fairfax (6) vs. Hollywood; Roosevelt (7) vs. Crenshaw; Wilson (8) vs. Manual Arts.

Loyola (14-10-1, 7-4-1) played at Marina High on Friday in the first round of the Southern Section Division I-A playoffs.

Bell Gardens (11-14-1) lost at Paramount, 2-0, in a Southern Section Division II wild card game on Tuesday.

In other games last week:

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Freddie Hernandez went 2 for 3 including a game-winning RBI single in the fourth inning to lift Franklin past Wilson, 3-2, Tuesday, earning the Panthers the Northern Conference championship . . . John Moreno-Orozco pitched a three-hit shutout as Bell defeated South Gate, 3-0, Wednesday to win the Southeastern Conference championship . . .