Andy Hall isn’t spending a lot of time lamenting his Wilson baseball team’s loss to Millikan that cost the Bruins an outright Moore League title. Likewise, he isn’t thinking much about the coin flip seeding that went the Rams’ way.
But the Bruins coach is peeved by the way the CIF-Southern Section builds its postseason Division 1 bracket irrespective of a team’s record.
Wilson (25-5) has the most wins of any team in the division with 25, and only three teams have fewer losses. The Bruins won the prestigious Redondo Tournament and finished second in the Loara Tournament. Before the season-ending loss to Millikan, they had won 12 straight and 20 of 21.
But that’s all moot because they finished second in the league by virtue of that coin flip; the Moore League is ranked among the lowest of all Division 1 leagues because its bottom (Cabrillo and Compton) was a combined 3-36. Only three of the seven teams finished with a winning record.
Thus, Wilson opens the playoffs Friday with a game against another second-place team, Moorpark, which went 18-9.
If Wilson wins that game, its next likely would be against Foothill League champ Hart (21-4-1); win that and a quarterfinal game would loom against Division 1 No. 2 seed Loyola (22-5).
“Obviously, the loss and coin flip didn’t help us, but I expected we’d get a wild-card winner in the first round,” Hall said Monday morning.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense. We’re facing a good second-place team, and we’ll both have to throw our best pitchers. That’s a disadvantage compared to those teams facing a wild-card winner which has already played a game.”
Moorpark’s nine losses included two losses to league champ Agoura and one to defending Division 1 champ Harvard-Westlake. Of its nine losses, five were by a run and three others were by two.
CIF-SS spokesman Thom Simmons said records aren’t part of the seeding process. By finishing second, Wilson was put in the lower part of the bracket and matched against a comparable second-place team.
Simmons said the two other second-place teams in that half of the bracket will face wild-card opponents in the first round – Santa Margarita (15-10-1) and Esperanza (19-8) – because they rated a higher seeding as second-place teams from tougher leagues (Trinity and Century).
The Bruins played an adventurous schedule. Their losses besides Millikan were to South Coast League champ CapistranoValley, San Gabriel Valley League champ Downey, Division 2 power Vista Murrieta and a midweek loss to Trinity League last-place team St. John Bosco.
“At least we got a home game,” Hall said with a chuckle.
“The reality is that there isn’t a weak sister in the entire division. It is what it is. There’s a big disadvantage in the first round when you’re not playing a wild-card team, and that will only change if they ever get around to making it a double-elimination tournament.”
Hall said he wasn’t sure who would start Friday. Tyler Radcliffe (7-2, 1.24 ERA) and Josh Goldberg (8-1, 0.87) have been the one-two punch throughout the season. A third choice would be A.J. Dean, who had several good outings in nonleague games.
Millikan will meet the winner of a wild-card game between Thousand Oaks (16-10) and King (14-12). The Rams didn’t earn any breaks in seeding, either. Though they get a wild-card opponent in the first round, their second-round game could be against defending D1 champ Harvard-Westlake.
Two other Moore League teams will play wild-card games Wednesday – Lakewood (17-10-1) is at Newbury Park (13-11) and Jordan (10-10) is at Anaheim Canyon (16-11). Poly (12-17) hosts Crespi (13-3) tonight at 6:30.
Suburban league teams La Mirada and Bellflower play first-round games in Division 2 on Thursday. Glenn and Mayfair play wild-card games tonight.
Warren and Downey of the San Gabriel Valley League have Division 3 first-round games Friday, and Gahr, which once was ranked No. 1 in the division, opens with a wild-card game Wednesday.
Contact the writer: bkeisser@lbregister.com
