Glendale Community College baseball garners SoCal No. 2 seed

Success has become a constant for the Glendale Community College baseball team this decade.

It has won two Western State Conference South Division championships in a row and five titles over the last six seasons.

But when it tees off the 2016 California Community College Athletic Assn. Southern California Regional, it will do so with the highest seeding it’s ever drawn.

The Vaqueros were bestowed with the No. 2 seed when the CCCAA unveiled postseason pairings on Sunday.

“[The] No. 2 seed in all of Southern California, it’s something to be proud of,” Vaqueros Coach Chris Cicuto said.

With the second seed comes the uncertainty of an opponent, as Glendale (28-8) will host its best-of-three series, starting Friday at Stengel Field, against one of three possible teams.

On Tuesday, two single elimination games will take place featuring No. 15 Santa Barbara City (19-17) hosting No. 18 Riverside City (21-15) and No. 16 Mount San Jacinto (20-16) welcoming No. 17 Fullerton (15-21). Glendale’s seeding was directly affected by Fullerton, which was headed in as the second seed before the use of an ineligible player caused the forfeit of 12 games.

While some might lean to predicting Riverside and Fullerton, both of them from the arduous Orange Empire Conference, to win, Cicuto is well aware that prognosticating the tournament is never easy.

“It’s baseball, it’s one game,” Cicuto said, “anything can happen.”

Saddleback (29-7) garnered the Southern California top seed and will host the lowest remaining seed from the play-in games. Glendale will host the higher remaining seed, which could be Santa Barbara, Mt. San Jacinto or Fullerton.

Glendale will open up the series at 2 p.m. on Friday with an 11 a.m. game on Saturday to follow. If a decisive third game is needed, it will be played at 3 p.m. Saturday or shortly after the second game’s conclusion.

Elsewhere in the bracket, No. 8 Long Beach will host No. 9 Bakersfield, which finished runner-up to GCC in the WSC South. Fifth-seeded Grossmont will host No. 12 Cerritos and No. 4 Cypress will welcome No. 13 El Camino to close out the top half of the SoCal bracket.

On GCC’s half, Golden West is the No. 3 seed and will host No. 14 Rio Hondo. Sixth-seeded Cuesta will play host to No. 11 Palomar and seventh-seeded Chaffey will host 10th-seeded College of the Canyons, which took third in the WSC South and engaged GCC in a thrilling three-game series won by the Vaqueros, 2-1, that saw each game decided by a one-run margin.

Glendale is 6-4 against the SoCal field, having taken two of three in division series against Bakersfield and Canyons, earning wins against Cerritos and Rio Hondo and having lost to Cypress and top-seeded Saddleback.

The Vaqueros, who have won four straight heading into the postseason and 15 of their previous 17, were the No. 8 seed last season and defeated Southwestern in two straight to open the playoffs. They were then defeated in three games by No. 10 Orange Coast, which went on to win the state championship.

In its previous four postseason appearances during its run of WSC titles, Glendale has advanced past the first round each season, beginning in 2011 when the Vaqueros made it all the way to the state championship final four in Bakersfield. Prior to this season, GCC’s highest seeding was No. 5 in 2012.

Said Cicuto: “Our guys are ready for playoff baseball.”