Pirates denied berth
Two-time defending state baseball champion Orange Coast College has been denied an opportunity to defend its title due to a technicality, Pirates Coach John Altobelli said Monday.
The issue involves a drop in RPI for Fullerton College, which forfeited 12 victories the final week of the season due to the use of an ineligible player.
Fullerton, which was at No. 2 in Southern California in RPI before the forfeits, which included four conference wins, dropped to No. 21 in the final RPI used to help determine at-large playoff entrants.
OCC finished the regular season 18-18, 9-12 in the Orange Empire Conference. It was No. 15 in the final RPI. But since a state rule prohibits teams from “jumping” teams they finish behind in the conference standings, regardless of RPI, the playoff berth that would have gone to OCC, instead, Altobelli said, went to Mount San Jacinto (20-16, 15-9 in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference), which finished at No. 20 in the final RPI.
Riverside (21-15, 9-12 in the OEC), which finished tied for fifth with OCC, but held the tiebreaker advantage based on head-to-head competition, made the playoffs with a No. 10 RPI.
“Mount San Jacinto is the team that bumped us, because they moved ahead of Fullerton in the RPI and we can’t jump Fullerton [(15-21, 11-10 in conference after the forfeits), which wound up fourth in conference],” Altobelli said.
“It’s weird how it played out and it’s disappointing for our kids, who battled and thought they had a chance to get into the playoffs. It wound up being something that was out of their control. I explained to my players that if this is the biggest tragedy in their lives, they would all lead pretty good life. But what stinks is, as back-to-back state champions, we can’t even get a chance to defend our title.”
The snub ends the streak of OCC’s consecutive playoff appearances at nine, a run that included California Community College Athletic Assn. titles in 2009, 2014 and 2015. The Pirates won their final two regular-season games to avert a losing record, which would have been the program’s first since 2004.
The CCCAA, citing a lack of institutional control by the Pirates’ athletic department, has imposed a postseason ban for all OCC sports for the 2016-17 school year. That ban would deny the Pirates a chance to make the playoffs next season as well, should its current appeal be denied.
