Area Colleges to Begin Play in Postseason Tournaments

Several Valley-area college baseball and softball teams will be competing in postseason play this week.

In junior college baseball, Pierce College received an automatic berth in the 16-team Southern California regional of the state tournament, and Canyons was awarded a wild-card berth.

Fifth-seeded Pierce (21-12), a Western State Conference co-champion, will play host to Desert (30-13) Friday at 2 p.m. Canyons (20-17-1), the 16th-seeded team and winner of the WSC’s Shaughnessy playoffs, will meet top-seeded Harbor (32-7), the defending state champion, at Harbor at 2 p.m. Friday.

Teams in the best-of-three tournament play a single game Friday and a doubleheader, if necessary, Saturday. Each winner advances to one of two regional finals.

The Master’s (22-16) will open NAIA District 3 tournament play Thursday at 11 a.m. against Christ College of Irvine (28-15) at Azusa Pacific. Master’s is the second-seeded team and top independent in the district.

Azusa Pacific (28-11) earned the top seeding. Cal Lutheran (32-8) won the District 3 tournament last season but did not receive an at-large invitation this spring.

In softball, Western State Conference champion Moorpark (27-7), seeded fourth, will play host to 13th-seeded Fullerton (13-20) in a Southern California regional game at 3 p.m. today. Seventh-seeded Ventura (23-13) will play host to 10th-seeded Antelope Valley (23-14) in a first-round game this afternoon at 3.

Winners advance to a best-of-three series beginning Friday.

Thousand Oaks High distance runner Erik Spayde signed a letter of intent last weekend to run cross-country and track at Stanford.

Spayde, who maintains a 4.0 grade-point average in honors classes and is interested in attending medical school, chose the Pacific-10 Conference school over Harvard because of Stanford’s athletics program, according to Thousand Oaks Coach Jack Farrell.

Spayde, who has the best times in the region in the 1,500- and 1,600-meter events this season, has personal bests of 3 minutes 58.7 seconds and 4:15.36 at those distances.

Brian Border, a water polo standout from Harvard High, will attend Stanford next season and attempt to make the team as a walk-on.

Border (6-foot-1, 165 pounds) also was considering Cal and Princeton.

Two players from The Master’s and one from Cal Lutheran were chosen to the NAIA All-District 3 baseball team. Catcher Dan O’Sullivan and third baseman Andy Martin from Master’s and Cal Lutheran outfielder Blake Babki were among the first-team selections.

Honorable-mention picks included: first baseman Dan Weis, second baseman Dave Leonhardt, outfielder Bob Farber and designated-hitter Pete Washington of Cal Lutheran and outfielder Sheldon Sparks and pitcher Chris Beck of Master’s.