JC Baseball Is Rain-Delayed, Rescheduled

Unexpected rainfall forced the postponement of Sunday’s state championship tournament final between Cerritos College and College of the Canyons.

The teams returned to Southern California Sunday and were rescheduled to meet Wednesday at noon at either Cal State Fullerton or Loyola Marymount.

Top-seeded Cerritos (38-5) is undefeated in the double-elimination tournament and needs only one victory over Canyons (31-13) to win its seventh state title.

Canyons, which eliminated both Sacramento City and Laney Saturday in loser’s bracket games, will have to beat Cerritos twice Wednesday to win its third state title in five years. The Cougars have one loss in the tournament, to Cerritos in the second round, 5-4.

Walt Rilliet, athletic commissioner of the California Assn. of Community Colleges, announced that any Cerritos or Canyons players selected in the winter free-agent draft who sign professional contracts tonight to avoid going back into the draft pool for this month’s free-agent draft, will be eligible to play Wednesday.

“Our rules say that anyone who signs a professional contract is no longer an amateur athlete and therefore no longer eligible to play in community college sports,” Rilliet said.

“But both coaches and I have talked this over, and we’re going to waive that rule for this special circumstance.”