Rancho Santiago Seeded Second in the Playoffs

Rancho Santiago College, the Orange Empire Conference baseball champion, will be the second-seeded team in the Southern California playoffs.

In pairings and seedings announced Monday, Rancho Santiago (32-9) will play host to Mt. San Jacinto (20-21) in the best-of-three first round, which begins Friday at 2 p.m. The teams play again on Saturday at 11 a.m., and a third game, if necessary, follows.

Golden West (25-12), the second-place finisher in the Orange Empire Conference, will play host to Cuesta (23-13). Golden West is the eighth-seeded team and Cuesta is No. 10.

Fullerton (24-13) will be at the College of the Canyons (24-13) in what is expected to be the most evenly-matched series of the first round.

In other first-round matchups: No. 16 MiraCosta (18-18) at No. 1 L.A. Harbor (43-5); No. 13 Rio Hondo (20-16) at No. 3 Cerritos (34-5); No. 14 Long Beach (16-21) at No. 4 Moorpark (22-12); No. 12 L.A. Mission (24-11) at No. 5 San Bernardino Valley (29-13), and No. 11 Riverside (27-15) at No. 6 San Diego City (15-19).

Game dates and times are the same for all of the series.

Riverside, which finished fourth in the Orange Empire Conference, received the biggest break. Its opponent, San Diego City, was declared the Pacific Coast Conference champion after the conference’s top two teams--Grossmont and Southwestern--were declared ineligible for the playoffs because they played too many regular-season games. The six conference champions automatically received the top six seedings.

San Diego City, which actually finished third in the Pacific Coast race, has lost nine of its last 10.

The eight winners of the first round will be split into two four-team regional groupings, with second-round sites at Cerritos and Riverside May 18-20. The two regional winners from Southern California and the two from Northern California will play for the state title May 25-27 at UC Irvine.

Softball pairings: The regional softball playoffs, featuring three local teams, begin Wednesday.

Cypress, the Orange Empire Conference champion, plays host to Antelope Valley at 3 p.m. Orange Coast plays host to San Diego Mesa at 3 p.m., and Golden West plays host to Long Beach at 7 p.m.

The winners of the eight first-round games advance to the best-of-three second round Saturday and Sunday. The four second-round winners advance to the state tournament May 18-20 at Sunnyvale.

All-Conference softball: Kellie Newcombe of Orange Coast was selected player of the year and teammate Kristin Heizer and Sally Dugas of Cypress were chosen pitchers of the year in a vote by the Orange Empire Conference softball coaches.

Catcher Rose Ferrante and infielders Teresa Anderson and Tricia Barr of Cypress were selected to the first team. Last season, Ferrante was the conference player of the year.

Also on the first team: OCC infielders Wendy Robinson and Cathy Scanlan and outfielder Heather Smith; Golden West infielder Gretchen Bock and outfielder Dana Ursich; Fullerton infielder Lorraine Garcia and utility player Debbie Dunigan, and Saddleback outfielder Kim Greany.

Prediction perfect: For the 13th time in 18 seasons, the Orange County sports information directors have correctly picked the winner of the baseball race.

This season’s group--Jack Shinar of OCC, Dale Ruhe of Rancho Santiago, Alan Lombardi of Cypress, Robert Schmidt of Riverside, Ken Hill of Fullerton and Steve Schwepker of Saddleback--also correctly picked the top three finishers.

It’s the fourth consecutive time the SIDs have tabbed the winner.

Men’s volleyball: Matt Lyles, an outside hitter from Orange Coast, was voted the South Coast League’s most valuable player. Lyles will play at Cal State Long Beach in the fall.

OCC teammates Craig Buccola, Travis Turner and Brad Friesen were also named to the first team. Lance Lyons of OCC and Dean Cunningham of Golden West were second-team selections.

Community College Notes

Gerad Cawhorn, a freshman infielder from Golden West, had the highest batting average--.404--in Orange Empire Conference games. Jeremy Sherman and Conrad Colby tied for second at .400. . . . Tony Baca, the Cypress men’s soccer coach, will take a sabbatical in the fall and be replaced by Fred Leininger, currently the coach at Cypress High School. . . . Shawna Armstrong and Micky Hamilton of the state champion Golden West women’s basketball team will play at Cal State San Bernardino in the fall. San Bernardino also got forward Mike Hunter and guard John Guerrero of the Rancho Santiago men’s basketball team, which won a state title.

Conf. Overall College W L T W L T Rancho Santiago 18 6 0 32 9 0 Golden West 15 9 0 25 12 1 Fullerton 14 10 0 24 13 0 Riverside 12 12 0 27 15 0 Cypress 9 15 0 23 19 0 Orange Coast 9 15 0 16 21 0 Saddleback 7 17 0 14 21 0