Three Baseball Teams in a Battle for Survival : Preps: Banning, Redondo and West Torrance will be pressed to extend their seasons beyond the quarterfinal round of the playoffs.

Banning, Redondo and West Torrance--the only South Bay teams remaining in the high school baseball playoffs--will play highly regarded opponents in quarterfinal-round games today and Friday.

Banning (15-8) meets top-seeded El Camino Real of Woodland Hills (21-2) at 3 p.m. today in a City Section 4-A Division game at El Camino Real.

Redondo and West will play host to second-seeded opponents in the Southern Section playoffs at 3:15 p.m. Friday. Redondo (20-9) plays Lompoc (22-4) in a Division II game and West (18-10-1) meets Santa Fe (23-1) in a Division III matchup.

Redondo and West won coin flips Wednesday for the right to play at home.

Banning, the Pacific League co-champion, will send senior right-hander Mario Soto (8-3, 2.51 earned-run average) to the mound against El Camino Real, which opened the playoffs Tuesday with a 5-0 victory over Van Nuys.

Senior shortstop Dan Cey, the son of former Dodger third baseman Ron Cey, hit a two-run homer Tuesday, his sixth of the season. Cey also leads the Conquistadores with 44 runs batted in. El Camino Real is expected to start junior left-hander Randy Wolf (9-1, 1.71). In his last start, Wolf pitched a no-hitter and struck out 14 in a 3-0 victory over Taft on May 18.

Banning took a 4-0 lead after six innings and held on to defeat Poly, 4-3, Tuesday. Senior left-hander Carlos Garibay (5-4) won his fourth consecutive decision, giving up five hits in 6 2/3 innings, and had two hits and two runs batted in.

Redondo’s Comeback Kids did it again Tuesday. The Seahawks, who came from five runs down Friday to win their playoff opener against Troy in eight innings, rallied from a 5-0 deficit to defeat Valencia, 7-6, on Rick Janssen’s solo home run to right field with two outs in the bottom of the eighth.

Mike Sutton’s sacrifice fly tied the score, 5-5, in the sixth, and Morgan Ensberg’s run-scoring single tied it, 6-6, in the seventh after Valencia had scored a run in the top of the inning. Sutton earned the victory--Redondo’s 17th in 20 games--with 1 2/3 innings of shutout relief.

Redondo will start left-hander Chris Peacock (5-2, 3.00) against Lompoc, which defeated Ocean League champion Beverly Hills, 6-3, Tuesday. Redondo beat Beverly Hills two out of three games on its way to finishing in a tie for second in the Ocean League.

A four-run first inning and the four-hit pitching of right-hander Jarrod DeGeorgia carried Lompoc past Beverly Hills.

West, the Pioneer League runner-up, will meet one of the Southern Section’s hottest teams. Santa Fe, whose only loss was against Corona del Mar in a tournament, extended its winning streak to 15 games Tuesday by scoring three runs in the top of the seventh to beat Charter Oak, 5-2.

Left-hander Mark Kotsay (10-0) earned the victory in relief and will start against West. A Cal State Fullerton recruit, Kotsay has a 1.04 ERA and 80 strikeouts in 50 innings. He is also a dangerous hitter, batting .450 with nine home runs and 27 RBIs.

Santa Fe’s No. 2 pitcher, left-hander Ryan DeWitt (6-1, 2.94 ERA), is batting .480 with 35 RBIs. The Chiefs won the Whitmont League title. El Rancho, the Whitmont’s third-place team, beat Pioneer League champion El Segundo, 3-2, in a playoff opener Friday.

West easily beat Palo Verde, 9-1, Tuesday. Junior second baseman Derek Nicholson drove in three runs and collected his 50th hit of the season with a two-run double in the first inning. Nicholson is batting .532 (50 for 94) with 15 doubles and 36 RBIs.

Right-hander Mike Myro (9-4, 1.85 ERA), who pitched a complete game in West’s first-round victory over Quartz Hill, will start Friday.

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North Torrance (14-10) will play host to third-seeded Alemany of Mission Hills (22-7) at 3:15 p.m. today in the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division III softball playoffs.

North, the third-place team from the Pioneer League, advanced with a 3-2 victory over St. Lucy’s on Tuesday. The Saxons scored all their runs in the fourth inning, two on a single by Heidi Niedermeier.

Alemany, the Mission League champion, beat Quartz Hill, 5-4.

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Second-seeded Peninsula (23-0) will play at third-seeded Corona Del Mar (20-1) at 3:15 p.m. today in the semifinals of the Southern Section Division I boys’ tennis playoffs. Led by No. 1 singles player Loren Peters, who lost only two games in winning his three matches, Peninsula shut out Woodbridge of Irvine, 18-0, in the quarterfinals Tuesday.

Corona del Mar advanced with a 13-5 victory over Long Beach Wilson.

South Bay Baseball Top 10

Selected by Times Sportswriters. Through Tuesday’s games Rank, School, League: Record 1 Redondo (Ocean): 20-9 2 El Segundo (Pioneer): 20-7 3 West Torrance (Pioneer): 18-10-1 4 Westchester (Western): 22-8 5 Peninsula (Bay): 18-7 6 Banning (Pacific): 15-8 7 Carson (Pacific): 17-14 8 Mira Costa (Ocean): 17-10 9 South Torrance (Pioneer): 14-13 10 Mary Star (Santa Fe): 17-8