Community College Notebook : Rancho Santiago Gets the Top Spot in Rankings for Baseball Playoffs

Rancho Santiago College, the top-seeded team in Southern California, heads the list of four Orange County community college baseball teams qualifying for the Southern California Regional playoffs.

The playoff pairings, determined by a committee that included representatives of the five Southern California conferences, were announced Monday at Orange Coast.

Receiving first-round byes were Rancho Santiago (34-7), Orange Empire Conference champion, and Cypress (32-9), which finished second in the Orange Empire Conference.

Orange Coast Coach Mike Mayne represented the Orange Empire Conference and Golden West’s Fred Hoover represented the South Coast Conference.

The five conference winners--Rancho Santiago, El Camino, College of the Canyons, Palomar and Los Angeles Harbor--and the top seeded second-place team, Cypress, received first-round byes.

The next eight teams, which finished second or third in their conferences, were seeded into the single-elimination wild-card round, which starts Thursday. The two teams that survive the wild-card round will join the other six teams in the regionals.

Golden West (26-13), a third-place finisher in the South Coast Conference and Orange Coast (26-18-1), the third-place team from the Orange Empire Conference, received berths into the wild-card round.

Golden West, seeded 11th, plays at No. 10 Chaffey (28-17-1). OCC, seeded 12th, plays at No. 9 Oxnard (24-13).

The winner of the Golden West-Chaffey game plays the winner of No. 14 Southwestern and No. 7 Cerritos Saturday. The Oxnard-OCC winner plays the winner of No. 13 Los Angeles Valley and No. 8 San Diego Mesa on Saturday.

The winners of Saturday’s two games advance to the Southern California double-elimination regionals. Rancho Santiago, which plays host to one of the regionals, will face the lowest-seeded team coming out of the wild-card round. Palomar (27-11), the fifth-seeded team, plays fourth-seeded Los Angeles Harbor (29-14) also at Rancho Santiago.

The second Southern California Regional will be at Cerritos.

College of the Canyons (32-6) plays the highest-seeded team coming out of the wild-card round and El Camino (29-14) plays Cypress (32-9).

The winner of each regional will advance to the double-elimination state tournament at UC Irvine May 27-29 against the two Northern California winners.

The softball pairings were also announced Monday. Saddleback, the defending state champion and Orange Empire Conference champion this season, was seeded third despite being ranked first in the state most of the season.

Palomar, the preseason favorite to win the state title, and Fullerton, a traditional softball power, were seeded first and second, respectively.

Saddleback qualified for the playoffs for the first time in school history last year.

The top 16 teams in Southern California open in eight single-elimination games Wednesday at 3 p.m. The eight winners meet Saturday at 1 p.m. in single games that start four best of three series. The series continue Sunday starting at noon, with a second game if needed Sunday.

In the first round Wednesday: San Bernardino Valley, the 14th-seeded team, is at No. 3 Saddleback; No. 9 Cypress is at No. 8 El Camino; No. 12 Rancho Santiago is at No. 4 San Diego Mesa; No. 10 Golden West is at No. 7 Southwestern, and No. 15 Antelope Valley is at No. 2 Fullerton.

Santa Monica, the 16th-seeded team, is at No. 1 Palomar; No. 13 Cerritos is at No. 4 Moorpark. and No. 11 Cuesta is at No. 6 Rio Hondo.

The four series winners travel to Sacramento City College to meet the north’s top four teams in the state tournament May 20-22.

Tina Constable of Orange Coast was the swimmer of the meet but the Pirates’ string of four consecutive women’s state swimming title was snapped last weekend at Ventura. Diablo Valley (398.5) won, OCC (365.5) was second and Golden West (294.5) third.

Constable won the 50-yard butterfly (26.62), the 100 freestyle (53.71) and the 50 freestyle (24.94).

Tania Ziegert of Golden West was second in the 500 freestyle, setting a school record at 5:09.05. Carolyn Bentley was second in the 100 breaststroke, setting a school record at 1:07.65. Kris Takayama was fourth in the 100 butterfly, setting a school record at 1:00.09.

Diablo Valley 9398.5) also won the men’s title. OCC (323.5) was second, Santa Monica (274) was third and Golden West (247).

Community College Notes

Rich Gonzales, Rancho Santiago’s designated hitter, Mike Misuraca, a shortstop and pitcher for Orange Coast and Sam Colarusso, a pitcher for OCC, have made oral commitments to attend Cal State Fullerton. . . . Jeff Brouelette, an infielder for OCC and Craig Anderson, a right-hander pitcher for Golden West, have agreed to play at Cal Lutheran next season. . . . Tim Churchill, whose 34-game hitting streak was snapped earlier this season, set a single-season Cypress record for hits (74) and RBIs (60). Churchill hit .413 (74 for 179). . . . Bobby Hamelin, who ended the regular season with a state record 27 home runs and 94 RBIs, hit a home run against Riverside April 30 as Rancho Santiago defeated Riverside, 6-2. After the game, a Riverside player brought two baseballs to Hamelin and asked for his autograph, according to Don Sneddon, Rancho Santiago coach.