Valencia beat Pacifica, 8-1, Friday to capture the Empire League’s third and final playoff berth.
Valencia and Pacifica finished the regular-season with 5-5 league records.
The first tiebreaker criteria in the Empire League is head-to-head results; Valencia and Pacifica split their two league matchups.
The next tiebreaker is how teams did against the league champion. Pacifica lost its two games against league champ Cypress. Valencia went 1-1 against Cypress, handing Cypress its only league loss.
Valencia is the league’s No. 3 representative in the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 playoffs. Cypress is No. 1. Tustin is No. 2 (Tillers coach Charles Chatman will be considered for O.C. baseball coach of the year).
There will be no at-large berths in Division 1 or in any of the other divisions except Division 6, which might not have an at-large berth if a free-lance team (a team without a league affiliation) is placed in Division 6 by the CIF-SS Baseball Coaches Advisory Committee.
