Simi Valley Awarded Another Chance at Bat : Baseball: Southern Section overturns league ruling and installs Pioneers in playoffs. Westlake ousted.

Mike Scyphers’ career as the Simi Valley High baseball coach has been resurrected for at least one day.

The controversial coach’s streak of losing administrative battles was snapped Thursday when a three-member Southern Section panel overruled a Marmonte League decision and allowed Simi Valley to replace Westlake in the Division I baseball playoffs.

It had appeared that the last game for Scyphers came Friday, when Thousand Oaks defeated Simi Valley, 7-6, in a game that decided the league championship. Scyphers had said earlier in the week that school administrators had forced him to resign at season’s end.

Because of the Southern Section ruling, the season goes on for the Pioneers, who will play at Alemany in a first-round game today at 3 p.m.

“We are elated to be in playoffs,” said Scyphers, whose team has made the playoffs in 14 of his 17 seasons. “We’re obviously very happy to get one more shot to play a game.”

Simi Valley was excluded from the playoffs when league representatives voted 5-3 to use a coin flip to determine the third and final berth. Simi Valley (17-9, 9-5) and Westlake (19-6, 9-5) had the same league records, and the league ruled that tie-breaking procedures did not produce a winner. Westlake won the flip.

However, Simi Valley protested that the principals interpreted the procedures incorrectly, and the Pioneers’ 2-0 head-to-head record against Westlake should have been used to break the tie.

In a highly unusual move, the Southern Section overturned the league ruling.

“Because there was a split vote of 5-3, it showed there was some lack of agreement,” Southern Section Commissioner Dean Crowley said. “In my 19 years [with the Southern Section] I don’t believe we’ve ever had to overturn a league decision.”

After stunning his players by breaking the news during practice Thursday, Westlake Coach Bob Wade lashed out at the decision.

“My feeling is that leagues have final determinations on playoff berths; that’s the way it’s always been,” Wade said. “I think they are setting a dangerous precedent by taking the decision away from the local league.”

Despite the wishes of some parents, Westlake will not pursue the matter further, Wade said.

“It’s not so much that we don’t think the decision can’t be overruled again, we don’t want to put kids on another emotional roller coaster,” Wade said.

Westlake players were crushed but not entirely surprised. They have endured a full week of rumors and speculation.

“Even when we beat Channel Islands [last Friday] we didn’t expect to be in,” said junior outfielder Matt Riordan, the team’s leading hitter.

“After [the coin flip], we were pumped. I think what made us the maddest is finding out the day before.”

Had the ruling not favored Simi Valley, attorneys representing Pioneer players were prepared to file an injunction in an attempt to delay today’s game.

“We were prepared to file the paperwork [Thursday],” attorney Daniel Gonzalez said.

“The appeal needed to be filed at around 2:30 p.m. and the committee gave us a ruling at 2:40. So it definitely went down to the deadline.”

Crowley said the Southern Section frowns on a playoff berth being decided by a coin flip unless it is the last alternative.

“The committee wasn’t comfortable with overturning a league decision, but the Marmonte League had other alternatives in this case,” he said.

Simi Valley was aided by a letter to Crowley from Bob Hawking, basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton. Hawking helped write the Marmonte League tie-breaking regulation when he was basketball coach at Simi Valley in the 1980s. He stated in the letter that the rule was designed to determine playoff teams by competition on the field, not by chance.

Gary Fabricius, the Newbury Park coach who resigned Thursday, said Simi Valley deserved the playoff berth.

“I thought their argument was correct,” Fabricius said. “I think the [Southern Section] made the right decision.”

Wade had another complaint, however, a view his fellow Marmonte coaches share. The Division I playoffs cram teams from 11 leagues into 32 first-round berths, forcing two teams to meet in a wild-card game and allowing for no at-large berths.

“I hope the Southern Section understands the frustration we’re experiencing,” Wade said. “They allowed for no wiggle room in the brackets.

“Why not have some wild-card games among deserving fourth-place teams?”

Scyphers understands Westlake’s frustration, a feeling his team experienced until Thursday.

“I feel real bad for the Westlake players, a class group of kids,” he said. “But I felt bad for our kids when they were left out of the playoffs.

“It’s sad to go this far dealing with the emotions of 50 high school athletes.”