THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Saugus Leads Pack, but Who’s Next?

The playoff picture in the Golden League has become somewhat of a brainteaser.

Saugus High (17-5-1 overall) has clinched the league title with a 13-1 record, but second and third place are up for grabs entering the final day of the regular season today.

Palmdale (8-6 in league play), Canyon (7-7) and Antelope Valley (7-7) are still in contention for postseason play. Canyon will play Saugus and Antelope Valley will play Palmdale in games today.

Scenario No. 1: Canyon loses to Saugus. Canyon (7-8) is eliminated and Palmdale, by virtue of two wins over Antelope Valley, is the league’s second-place representative regardless of the outcome of today’s game. Antelope Valley finishes third by virtue of two victories over Canyon.

Scenario No. 2: Canyon defeats Saugus, and Palmdale defeats Antelope Valley. Palmdale (9-6) finishes second and Canyon (8-7) finishes third. Antelope Valley (7-8) is eliminated.

Scenario No. 3: Canyon defeats Saugus, and Antelope Valley defeats Palmdale. Antelope Valley, Canyon and Palmdale finish in a three-way tie for second with 8-7 records.

The league’s first tiebreaking criterion--head-to-head competition--is disregarded because Antelope Valley has beaten Canyon twice, Canyon has beaten Palmdale twice and Palmdale has beaten Antelope Valley twice.

The second criterion is a point system that weights victories in league play based on strength of opponent. A win over the first-place team is worth more than a victory over the last-place team.

In this scenario, Antelope Valley and Canyon, with victories over first-place Saugus, would claim the second and third playoff berths in the Southern Section 3-A Division. Palmdale, with three losses to Saugus, would be eliminated.

Overlooked: El Camino Real right-hander Corey Bromberg has the kind of numbers for which most pitchers would kill. He is 2-0 with an earned-run average of 0.35 in 20 innings. He has struck out 21 and walked five.

Yet Bromberg, who was selected to the Thousand Oaks’ all-tournament team, has appeared in just four games. And it’s all because there are two guys playing in front of him who also have fairly decent numbers.

The lefty-righty combination of Ryan McGuire (5-1, 2.44 ERA) and Pat Treend (9-0, 1.10) has proven tough to supplant. Both McGuire (UCLA) and Treend (UC Santa Barbara) are bound for Division I schools.

In Friday’s 14-0 defeat of Canoga Park at Lanark Park, Bromberg pitched a four-hitter, struck out nine and walked four. This is called maximizing one’s chances.

“He’s had some real good outings,” Coach Mike Maio said. “But it’s hard to get him in there with the other two guys we have.”

Perhaps Bromberg can find solace in the most important number of all: 11.

While Treend and McGuire are 12th-graders, Bromberg is only a junior.

Merrill returns: Channel Islands’ Tajah Merrill pitched in relief in a game Friday at Camarillo, the school he left in midseason because of personal reasons, and earned the win in an 8-7 victory over the Scorpions.

Merrill, a junior left-hander, also earned the win in a 5-3 defeat of Royal on Wednesday. Against Camarillo, he struck out the side with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh--including a two-out strikeout on a 3-2 pitch. Merrill was 2-1 with an 0.91 earned-run average at Camarillo and he finished 2-1 for the Raiders.

No-luck Raiders: Looking for a way to upset Coach Don Cardinal? Tell him why Channel Islands (15-12, 5-7) finished one game behind Thousand Oaks in the battle for the league’s third and final playoff berth.

“I don’t even want to hear it,” he said.

Channel Islands lost two league games on a balk and a wild pitch, and two others by a total of two runs.

Staff writers Steve Elling, Vince Kowalick and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.