JUNIOR COLLEGE BASEBALL PREVIEW : WSC Divides, With Hopes to Conquer

Let’s see now. It’s February, so junior college baseball teams throughout the state will get rolling this weekend, many in tournament play, others in nonconference games.

It’s also time--surprise! surprise!--for the ceremonial unveiling of yet another schedule change in the Western State Conference.

Prompted by two factors--money and a bruised ego--the WSC will operate under a new format for conference games for the third consecutive season.

“What else is new?” asked Bob Lofrano, the Pierce coach.

This much is.

After playing as an 11-team conference the past two seasons, the WSC will split into North and South divisions this year. Teams will play four times against each school in their division, two at home and two away.

They also will play each team in the other division once, but this is where the books won’t balance because the divisions don’t have the same number of teams.

Not yet. But more on that later.

For now, the North Division will be disputed among Moorpark, Oxnard, Ventura, Cuesta and Santa Barbara. The South Division will have Canyons, Glendale, Pierce, Valley, Bakersfield and Santa Monica. That means North Division teams will play 22 conference games, three fewer than South Division squads.

Last year, WSC teams played a three-round, 30-game schedule. Two seasons ago, it was 20 conference games, or twice against each opponent. That schedule afforded teams ample room for nonconference games within the 36-game season limit (not including playoffs) permitted under state rules. But the 30-game conference schedule was another story.

Because of the additional conference competition, WSC coaches believed their teams were overlooked for playoff consideration, except for the two that automatically qualified. Allegedly, coaches in other conferences questioned the strength of WSC teams because they did not play enough nonconference games.

Those sentiments apparently cost Valley a playoff berth last year, even though the Monarchs finished tied for second with Pierce and had a 20-16 overall record. Pierce advanced to the regionals as the second-place qualifier behind WSC champion Canyons because the Brahmas swept their three-game series with Valley.

Valley Coach Chris Johnson questioned the seeding committee’s motives, saying at the time, “We (WSC) got a slap in the face.”

With the new divisional breakdown, WSC coaches hope that perhaps as many as two teams from each division will earn playoff berths. But Johnson and his colleagues say there is more to the new schedule than past slights.

“The biggest part of it was travel, just flat out finances,” Johnson said. “Money is tight and that was a big part of the motivation. Those trips to Cuesta (in San Luis Obispo) cost a bundle.”

In fact, Canyons Coach Len Mohney said the push to adopt a more financially friendly schedule wasn’t altogether developed by the coaches.

“It was not really our idea,” Mohney said. “It was more of (a conference-wide) administrative idea. But we didn’t balk at it.”

By splitting the conference, Cuesta won’t have to travel as far to play. And it will fuel some of the natural geographical rivalries already in place but that have been somewhat lost in the shuffle in the larger conference.

In Ventura County, for instance, Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura will do battle and the Valley area will have Canyons, Glendale, Pierce and Valley engaged in potentially intense games.

“We are the southernmost team in our division, so it’s not going to help us as much as far as travel, but it will help Cuesta,” Moorpark Coach Ken Wagner said. “They won’t have to make all those long trips.”

Still, Mohney said he is not enamored with the plan even though he accepted it.

“I liked playing the (North Division) schools,” Mohney said. “I just don’t like not being able to play those guys as much. The Western State Conference is a fun league and it’s a shame we can’t play each other the same number of times.”

Lofrano, however, is willing to trade that experience for less time on the road.

“It’s kind of nice not having to travel that much,” he said.

The conference will make one more minor adjustment next season when Hancock is expected to join the ranks.

The Santa Maria school, now in the Coast Valley Conference that will be disbanded after the current school year, will play in the North Division, giving each division six teams. It will be just one more change for Ventura Coach Gary Anglin, now in his 17th season with the Pirates.

“I’ve been here so long, I’ve been through all of them (changes),” he said.