Softball: My long-awaited SF Valley/North playoff predictions

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I didn’t make any first-round softball playoff predictions because I was too busy, but that’s not going to stop me from blogging my second-round picks.

By the way, I’m still getting over Sonora‘s 4-3 triumph over Oak Park on Friday. It was quite possibly the biggest upset of the first round (although Agoura really lifted my eyebrows with a 4-2 victory over El Toro). I thought Julia Rice and the rest of the Oak Park bunch were bound to meet up with Crescenta Valley in the final. Oh well -- it just shows you the unpredictable nature of the postseason.

With that in mind, here’s what I think will happen Tuesday:

DIVISION I
Simi Valley 7, Trabuco Hills 1
Hart 3, Mater Dei 1
Norco 4, Camarillo 1
Valencia 5, Santa Margarita 0
Corona 3, Agoura 1
Thousand Oaks 3, Rosary 2
Corona Santiago 8, Saugus 1

DIVISION II
Long Beach Wilson 6, Paso Robles 2

DIVISION III
Crescenta Valley 8, Highland 1
Laguna Hills 9, Santa Clara 2
Burbank 7, Rancho Alamitos 3

DIVISION IV
La Quinta 9, Lompoc 1 (long road trip)
Pomona Catholic 4, Chaminade 2
Alemany 5, Segerstrom 1
Templeton 5, Indio 4 (that’s a really long road trip!)

DIVISION V
Village Christian 6, Northview 4
Hesperia 8, L.A. Baptist 3

DIVISION VI
Paraclete 5, Oxford Academy 4

DIVISION VII
Viewpoint 12, Southlands Christian 1
Providence 6, Rolling Hills Prep 2
Baptist Christian 5, Bell-Jeff 3
Faith Baptist 9, Bermuda Dunes Desert Christian 2

Click here for Tuesday’s schedule and here are the playoff brackets. And that’s Hart shortstop Melissa Brown in the photo.

-- Austin Knoblauch

-- Image by Austin Knoblauch