Rancho Santiago Begins Baseball Playoffs With No. 2 Seeding

The Orange Empire Conference, considered the best baseball conference in the state, placed four teams in the first-round pairings of the Southern California Regional playoffs, which were announced Monday.

Rancho Santiago (36-9), the conference champion, is seeded second behind defending state champion Los Angeles Harbor (32-7). Rancho Santiago lost to L.A. Harbor twice this season. Riverside (31-12), which finished second in the conference, third-place Cypress (27-14) and fourth-place Fullerton (25-18) also advanced to the playoffs.

The first round, which is a best-of-three series, starts Friday at 2 p.m. at the site of the higher-seeded team. The series concludes Saturday, with games starting at 11 a.m.

Rancho Santiago plays host to No. 15 Long Beach (21-20) Friday. The teams met three times earlier this season with the Dons winning each game.

Riverside (31-12), the seventh-seeded team, plays host to No. 10 Mt. San Antonio (24-15), and No. 8 Cypress (27-14) plays host to No. 9 Cuesta (27-14).

“We’re happy that we are going to be at home,” Cypress Coach Scott Pickler said. “I figured we would play Cuesta but up there (San Luis Obispo).”

Eleventh-seeded Fullerton is at sixth-seeded San Diego Mesa (25-12).

“We did well for a fourth-place team,” Fullerton Coach Nick Fuscardo said. “I’m happy with where we were placed.”

L.A. Harbor plays host to No. 16 College of the Canyons (20-17-1); No. 14 Southwestern (24-15) is at No. 3 Cerritos (24-13-2); No. 13 East Los Angeles (27-14) is at No. 4 Citrus (25-14), and No. 12 College of the Desert (30-13) is at No. 5 Los Angeles Pierce (21-12) in other first-round match-ups.

The eight first-round winners will be split into two groups that will play in double-elimination regional tournaments May 17-19. Riverside and L.A. Harbor have been tentatively announced as the regional sites, pending both teams winning in the first round.

The winner at each site will travel to Sacramento for the four-team state tournament May 25-27.

Softball pairings. Cypress (39-10), Orange Coast (32-13), Fullerton (13-20) and Golden West (17-15) advance to the first round of the Southern California Regional softball playoffs, which start at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Cypress, the Orange Empire Conference champion, plays host to Bakersfield (12-21). Orange Coast, the conference’s second-place team, plays host to El Camino (11-23).

Fullerton is at Moorpark (27-7) and Golden West plays Pasadena (30-12) at Cal Poly Pomona in the other first-round games involving county teams.

Other first-round games: College of the Desert (21-17) at Palomar (33-8); Southwestern (17-15) at Chaffey (23-16); Grossmont (21-11) at Long Beach (21-8), and Antelope Valley (23-14) at Ventura (23-13).

The winners of the first round advance to a best-of-three series starting Saturday. The four second-round winners advance to the state tournament, May 17-19 at Golden West.

In case you missed it. Orange Coast had a most impressive weekend, winning three state titles Saturday.

The OCC men’s volleyball team, coached by Bob Wetzel, won its third consecutive championship with a 5-15, 15-12, 15-11, 15-12 victory over Long Beach at L.A. Pierce.

OCC became the first school to win state titles in men’s and women’s swimming in the same year as the Pirates dominated the finals at De Anza College in Cupertino. The OCC men, coached by Don Watson, set a meet record with 586 points.

The Pirate women, also coached by Watson, won their third title in a row and seventh in the last eight years.

OCC also took first place in the Newport Invitational Rowing Regatta for the sixth consecutive year Sunday on North Lido Channel in Newport Beach.

The Pirates won three events and were third in another to finish with 20 points. UCLA and Stanford each had 16 points. OCC won the Freshman Eights (6 minutes 11.12 seconds), Junior Varsity Eights (6:09.59) and the Novice Eights (6:14.69).