Diamond Bar Seeded First in 5-A Division as Baseball Playoffs Begin

First-round games in the Southern Section baseball playoffs begin Friday with Diamond Bar seeded first in the 5-A Division.

The Brahmas (24-1), ranked No. 1 in the nation by USA Today, play host to Leuzinger (10-12).

Other 5-A first-round games involving San Gabriel Valley area schools are Arcadia at Royal, Nogales at Bishop Amat and San Gabriel at Riverside Poly.

In the 4-A, Northview plays host to El Toro, Arlington plays host to Damien, and South Hills is at Brea-Olinda.

In the 3-A, Mountain View plays host to Chaffey, Tustin plays host to El Rancho, El Monte plays host to Corona del Mar and Bonita plays host to St. Francis.

In first-round 2-A games on Tuesday, Mary Star of the Sea plays host to the winner of a wild-card game between Temple City and Gladstone, Monrovia plays host to either Temecula Valley or Santa Monica, and Sierra Vista plays host to either Yucaipa or Rancho Verde.

It’s a first--The Pomona-Pitzer women’s tennis team won the school’s first NCAA championship at the Division III finals last week at Kalamazoo, Mich.

Pomona-Pitzer’s Shelly Keeler, a senior from Mercer Island, Wash., won the singles title by defeating Carolyn Bodart of Menlo, 6-1, 6-4. Keeler also teamed with senior Erin Hendricks of Newport Beach to win the doubles title.

Knocked out--The Azusa Pacific baseball team fell short in its attempt to reach the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics World Series when Lewis & Clark State swept the Cougars in a doubleheader at the Area 1 playoffs in Lewiston, Idaho.

Lewis & Clark, the five-time defending NAIA champion, beat the Cougars, 12-8 and 16-3, to advance to the World Series this week at Des Moines, Iowa.

Azusa Pacific finished the season 35-12.

Knocked out, Part II--The Mt. San Antonio College baseball team was eliminated from the Southern California Regional of the community college state tournament when the Mounties lost to Rancho Santiago, 11-2, Saturday.

Mt. SAC had dropped its opener to Pierce on Friday but came back to beat Riverside Saturday morning before being eliminated.

Mt. SAC finished 30-17.

Olympian effort--Kevin Lidle, a sophomore catcher at Mt. SAC, is expected to be extended an invitation to try out June 8 for the U.S. Olympic baseball team at Millington, Tenn.

Lidle, who played at South Hills High, became an Olympic team candidate when catcher Rene Lopez of Harbor had to decline his invitation after suffering a knee injury during the community college state tournament last week.

Lidle batted .379 with three home runs and 35 runs batted in this season.

Champions again--The Mt. SAC women’s track and field team won its third state title in five seasons and sixth in school history at the State Junior College Championships at Long Beach City College on Friday and Saturday.

Mt. SAC won with 65 points, followed by El Camino (55), Taft (52) and San Diego Mesa (48).

Vijitha Amarasekera of Mt. SAC won the javelin with a throw of 184 feet 11 inches to break her own national community college record of 179-11 set earlier this season.

Suzanne Castruita broke her school record in winning the 5,000 meters in 17 minutes 17.12 seconds. Castruita, who helped lead Mt. SAC to a share of the state cross-country title in November, also placed second in the 3,000 in 9:59.6.

Going out on top--The Cal State Los Angeles women’s track team ended a 10-year Cal Poly San Luis Obispo reign by winning the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship.

Cal State L.A. won with 202 points and Cal Poly SLO was second with 197. No team besides Cal Poly SLO had won the conference title since the CCAA was formed in 1982.

Gudrun Armanski of Cal State L.A., who will retire after 20 seasons, was named the conference coach of the year.

Christy Opara of Cal State L.A. was named the female athlete of the meet after winning the 100 (11.76), 200 (23.82), long jump (20-8 3/4) and teaming with Felicia Howard, Margo Grant and Cheryl Porter on the Golden Eagles’ victorious 400-meter relay team (46.76).

Cal State L.A. finished second in the men’s competition behind Cal Poly SLO. Keadrick Washington won the 110 hurdles (14.46) and 400 intermediates (53.03) and William McCoy won the long jump (23-10 1/4) and triple jump (49-6 1/4).

Honor roll--Jami White of Pasadena City College was named softball player of the year in the South Coast Conference.

White, a sophomore, batted .338 and drove in 15 runs for the Lancers, who finished the season 24-16.

Staff writer Kirby Lee contributed to this notebook