CCS, NCS to choose NorCal baseball, softball teams
As always in California high school sports, there is no one size fits all. Bylaws in the Central Coast Section Section don't necessarily match bylaws in the North Coast Section.
Such is the case in baseball and softball.
Next week, the CIF will hold its first Northern California regional playoffs in those sports. The regionals were to make their debut in 2020 but were delayed two years because of the pandemic.
The largest sections in the area are expected to send nine baseball and nine softball teams each into NorCals.
But they are going about the selection process quite differently.
In the CCS, which uses a competitive-equity model for its playoffs, the semifinalists in Division I baseball and Open Division softball qualify to move on, per the section's bylaws.
Given that the semifinal matchups are set, we already know the four teams.
Baseball: St. Francis, Valley Christian, Palo Alto, Bellarmine.
Softball: St. Francis, Notre Dame-Salinas, Archbishop Mitty, Aragon.
The rest of the spots will be distributed evenly among the remaining five divisions. The champions from those brackets are expected to advance.
In the NCS, which separates teams primarily by enrollment, the six division champions in baseball and six division champions in softball qualify.
The remaining spots will come from the three highest runner-up seeds. If there is a tie, the NCS staff will use its at-large and seeding criteria to make the selection or selections.
In NCS baseball, three No. 1 seeds have advanced to the semifinals (Foothill in DI, Cardinal Newman in DIII and Berean Christian in DV) and another (St. Bernard's in DVI) has reached a final.
There are three No. 2 seeds alive (Justin Siena in DIV, Fremont Christian in D-V and Credo in DVI).
In NCS softball, the top two seeds in Divisions I through V have reached the semifinals. In Division VI, No. 1 seed Point Arena has already beaten No. 2 seed Laytonville in the final.
The NorCal brackets will be announced Sunday.
The regionals start on May 31 and will conclude on June 4. Baseball: New state No. 1 St. Francis, which scored five runs in the sixth to erase a four-run deficit on Saturday and beat Live Oak 5-4 in the first round of the CCS Division I playoffs, was rewarded for its effort.
Monday, Cal-Hi Sports moved the Lancers to No. 1 in its latest state rankings.
St. Francis plays Bellarmine tonight in a CCS semifinal at Excite Ballpark in San Jose.
Here are other teams from the BANG coverage area that are ranked among the state's best: No. 3 Foothill, No. 6 Valley Christian, No. 9 California, No. 10 De La Salle, No. 16 Palo Alto, No. 19 Bellarmine and No. 25 Archbishop Mitty.
More baseball: Why Los Gatos is traveling
For all of the Los Gatos supporters wondering why the Wildcats, seeded No. 1 in Division III, are playing against fourth-seeded Monterey at Sollecito Field in Monterey today, here is why:
The section playoffs are a real-time puzzle for the CCS.
Before the playoffs start, section leaders visit potential venues and sign contracts to reserve the venues that meet their requirements.
For years, that meant most teams at the Southern end of the CCS, no matter the seed, had to travel to the San Jose area for playoff games.
The CCS is now aiming to spread its playoffs to venues throughout the section.
Plus, as commissioner Dave Grissom said Monday, just because a team is seeded No. 1 doesn't automatically mean that team gets to play close to home.
“There are a ton of things that go into scheduling games,” Grissom said, noting all the senior activities at schools across the section. “We've been really conscious in our office -- and it's been a real push for me -- to include our entire section in hosting games. San Jose is not the center of the universe. For me, it's been a real push to get some games down in our Southern conference.
“In baseball, for instance, we have this park which has been redone and in my opinion redone unbelievably well. It's nice to kind of show off the city of Monterey a little bit, part of our section. That's been a real push for us. In softball, we're going to Salinas. In water polo, we went to Hollister.”
Another part of the puzzle is the CCS tries to schedule baseball divisions on the same day to keep the playing field even for pitching staffs.
“That's a big issue,” Grissom said.
“On Wednesday, we needed one team to go down to that park, and it became Los Gatos.”
NorCal golf
It was quite a day for Dougherty Valley's Jacob Ponce and De La Salle at the CIF NorCal regional golf championships on Monday at Berkeley Country Club in El Cerrito.
Ponce had four birdies on the front nine and four on the back nine to shoot 7-under 65 and capture first place by a stroke over De La Salle's Jaden Dumdumaya and Consumnes Oak's Zachary Mate.
De La Salle shot 3-under as a team to finish first by an astounding 16 strokes over runner-up Foothill and 18 over third-place Dougherty Valley. The championship was De La Salle's fifth since 2006.
The top three teams and nine individuals not on a qualifying team advance to the state championships on June 1 at San Gabriel Country Club.
Serra's William Walsh, Crystal Springs Upland's Edan Cui and Athenian's Austin Wang shot 3-under 69 to tie for fifth. Castro Valley's Seth Saffell and De La Salle's Joshua Kim tied for eighth at 2-under 70.
Monta Vista's Ethan Lien (1-under 71) tied for 10th and also qualified for state.
Etc.
Dethrick Slocum, formerly a defensive coordinator at Moreau Catholic, is the new football coach at Gunn, the Palo Alto school's athletic director, Curtis Johansen, told the Bay Area News Group in an email . ... Former Palo Alto football coach and AD Nelson Gifford told correspondent Glenn Reeves that he is taking over as Santa Clara's AD in the fall.