VALLEY/VENTURA ROUNDUP

Mission is seeded seventh and Pierce 15th in the first round of the Southern California junior college regional scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at eight sites.

The Saturday games in all of the best-of-three series are set to start at noon. The first games on Sunday are scheduled to start at 11 a.m., followed by a third game, if necessary.

Mission (26-15), the Southern California Athletic Conference winner, will play host to defending state champion Rancho Santiago (33-10), the third-place team in the Orange Empire League.

Pierce (26-15), the No. 3 representative from the Western State Conference, will travel to Harbor (29-12). The Seahawks eliminated Pierce in a first-round series last season.

The eight winners will advance to the second round on May 21-22. The state tournament that will include four teams from the North and four from the South, will be played May 28-30 at Cerritos.

Cal State Northridge, which needed help from its other Western Athletic Conference members over the weekend to remain in contention for the West Division title, got exactly that from Fresno State.

The Bulldogs (32-23, 12-9 in conference play) won two of three games from division-leading San Diego State (31-22, 13-8), allowing Northridge (24-26, 12-9) to close to one game with three to play.

Northridge concludes the regular season this weekend with a three-game series at Fresno. San Diego State plays host to Cal State Sacramento (26-26, 9-12) this weekend.

Softball

Four area schools will participate in the women’s Southern California junior college regional that will be played Friday and Saturday at four locations. Sixteen teams will be involved in the double-elimination tournament.

In first-round games on Friday, Antelope Valley (37-9), the Foothill Conference champion and fifth-seeded team, will face No. 12 El Camino (20-17) at 2 p.m. in a four-team regional at Cypress.

Ninth-seeded Moorpark (29-12), the Western State Conference winner, will meet No. 8 Rancho Santiago (26-17) at 2 p.m. at Palomar. Ventura (20-20), seeded 16th, is in the same group and will play Palomar (33-11), the top-seeded team, at 1 p.m.

Canyons (22-15) is seeded 14th and will face No. 3 Orange Coast (29-13-2) at noon at Orange Coast.

The winners of the four groups will advance to the eight-team state championships May 20-22.