Baseball, softball seasons expanding next year

Northern regional playoffs will start

The high school baseball and softball seasons will begin in a few weeks with a familiar finish line: the section playoffs.

So that dream end-of-year baseball matchup from the past couple of seasons -- De La Salle vs. Valley Christian -- won’t happen again.

But next year?

Well, it could.

At its recent Federated Council meeting in Long Beach, the California Interscholastic Federation approved a proposal to add Northern and Southern regionals in baseball and softball beginning next school year.

It was not a unanimous decision.

The Central Coast Section voted against the expansion, largely because it adds more games to an already challenging part of the calendar -- with finals, graduation and some schools already on summer break among the concerns.

The North Coast Section voted in favor of extending the season.

The final statewide tally: 88 yes, 53 no.

So on June 1, 2021, the regional baseball and softball playoffs will begin. There will be five eight-team divisions in both the North and South. It will be single-elimination. The semifinals will be held on June 3 and the finals June 5.

Here is the number of qualifiers each section in the North will receive: Sacjoaquin (10), CCS (9), NCS (9), Northern (6), Central (4), Oakland (1), San Francisco (1). There is no state championship.

We touched base with a few high-profile Bay Area baseball and softball coaches to get their thoughts.

Valley Christian baseball coach John Diatte, whose team has claimed three consecutive CCS Open Division titles: “It’s only going to affect a few of us and, of course, we hope that we’re one of those few because that means you’ve had a good year. It does lengthen the season by a week and some extra travel at the end of the year for students while some of us will be in finals or some of us will be out of school. I don’t know how that’s all going to work. I know (the CIF) will do a good job and it will be a good thing for the kids, good competition. It will be another way to test your program if you do have that good year.”

St. Francis softball coach Mike Oakland, who likes the idea but is concerned that the playoff will take place two weeks after his school’s graduation: “Our graduation day is the first round of CCS, so we’re already out of school the whole next week, Right now the goal for pretty much everybody at the beginning of the season is to win CCS. And now you’re saying we’re going to add another goal of winning Norcals. I don’t know, for me, it’s one of those things that in the beginning will be really difficult to wrap your head around it, but I think over time if it continues, it gets smoothed out and you accept it as part of the season.”

One concern for softball players, Oakland noted, is travel ball commitments.

“In softball, all recruiting is done through travel ball,” said Oakland, who has won CCS Open Division titles in both baseball and softball at St. Francis. “Nobody is being recruited out of their high schools like they are in baseball. You could potentially get yourself into a situation where a kid has to choose between going to a showcase tournament that they know a ton of college coaches are going to be there to watch them, or stay around and play another week of high school softball.”

CCS baseball changes

The CCS is adjusting its baseball playoff format starting this spring. There will be no more Open Division and 16-team brackets. The section’s Board of Managers approved a proposal last month to go with six, eight-team divisions to fill the 48 spots. The changes call for a competitive-based model similar to the CCS football playoffs -- with the top eight teams in Division I, the next eight in Division II and on down the line.

“They’ll keep the playoff points to see who gets in the tournament and to use it as a tool for seeding,” assistant commissioner Steve Filios said. “But the seeding will have subjective criteria as well.”

The finals will be held at two venues, Filios added, with Excite Ballpark (formerly San Jose Municipal Stadium) being one of the sites.

The CCS softball playoff format is not changing.