Baseball: JSerra is No. 1 seed in Division 1, but it’s going to be challenging tournament

No matter the seedings and no matter what league they come from, there are no certain winners in the Southern Section Division 1 playoffs. There are too many quality teams and no single dominant, overpowering pitcher, which means anything can and will happen when the playoffs begin on Wednesday with wild-card games.

Here’s the link to complete pairings.

San Juan Capistrano JSerra deserved the No. 1 seed and will play the winner of the wild-card game between Dana Hills and Great Oak on Friday at home. The Lions won the Trinity League and have been the best team over the course of the season. But everything changes now. Suddenly, the Lions won’t be as familiar with opponents, and that’s a big deal.

One of the reasons JSerra has been so good is pitcher Collin Quinn, a sidearmer who’s 10-0 and throws strike after strike. He doesn’t strike out many but keeps winning, aided by good defense and scouting that has enabled the Lions to position their talented fielders where the ball might be hit. It’s going to be tougher in the playoffs, and if an opposing pitcher matches Quinn, then one ball hit to an open area could be the difference.

One of the hottest teams is Chaminade, the Mission League champion. The Eagles’ back-to-back batting duo of Blake Rutherford and Nick Kahle, combined with an improving ace in Anthony Acosta, makes the Eagles a contender.

Trinity and Mission teams have been playing three league games a week, so their playoff teams will be ready for the five or even six-game tournament requiring multiple pitchers.

El Toro, the No. 2 seed, might have the best one-two pitcher duo in Bradley Spooner and Sam Glick. The Chargers won’t have to worry about who to pitch on a given day. Both are aces.

The big development this season is the lack of a pitcher everyone is afraid of. In the past, there’s been the likes of Tyler Matzek (Capistrano Valley), Jack Flaherty (Harvard-Westlake) and Griffin Canning (Santa Margarita), all of whom won Division 1 titles.

Among the hot teams is West Ranch, which has won 14 of its last 15 games and won the Foothill League title. But West Ranch has to face Santa Ana Mater Dei in a tough opener on Friday.

And don’t forget about Riverside North. Some of these players were freshmen when they were eliminated on a no-hitter by Harvard-Westlake’s Flaherty. They’re all grown up and ready to make a run. In fact, North could end up playing Harvard-Westlake at home on Friday if the Wolverines win their wild-card game on Wednesday against Westlake.

There’s so many competitive matchups ahead that teams will need to be ready for extra innings.

Let’s hope everybody remembers batting practice before games is illegal. We don’t need another controversial post-game forfeit that has happened in the past because somebody thought batting practicing was OK.

According to the Southern Section rule, “Batting practice will be construed as any type of pitching motion with any type of ball from in front of the batter (including pitching machines and overhand throw).”

Also: “The only acceptable batting warmup will be side soft toss, batting tee work or pepper. . . . For side soft toss, the guidelines are as follows: the tosser should be on a knee, to the side of the batter and the ball should be lifted, not pitched, to the batter.”

And don’t think that parents aren’t going to have their cameras and cellphones out to capture it all.

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