JUNIOR COLLEGE BASEBALL : Pierce Ready for Riverside in Round Two

Pierce College opens play today in the second round of the Southern California baseball regional with a game against Riverside at 3 p.m. at Rancho Santiago.

There are two four-team tournaments in the double-elimination round that ends Sunday.

The Brahmas (27-16) are grouped with Riverside (26-18-1), Saddleback (33-17) and Rancho Santiago (36-9), all Orange Empire Conference teams. Saddleback will face Rancho Santiago at 11 a.m.

The two winners will meet Saturday at 11 a.m. at Rancho Santiago and the two losers will play at 10 a.m. at Fullerton.

At 3 p.m., the winner of the game at Fullerton (the loser is eliminated) will play an elimination game against the loser of the game at Rancho Santiago.

On Sunday at 11 a.m., the winners’ bracket team will face the losers’ bracket survivor, which can win the tournament by forcing and winning a second game.

The tournament champion will advance to the four-team State championships May 27-29 at Fresno City.

Pierce, Western State Conference South Division champion, has won 10 consecutive games.

*

Steve Coots, Glendale College baseball coach the past 18 seasons, will take an indefinite leave of absence from coaching for unspecified health reasons, Glendale Athletic Director Jim Sartoris said Thursday.

Sartoris said Coots, who could not be reached for comment, will continue to teach health and physical education at Glendale. He said the school is looking for an interim coach to replace Coots.

The Vaqueros were 16-26-2 overall, 8-18 in the Western State Conference this season. They tied Mission for fourth place in the WSC South Division.

Coots is 331-299-4 since taking over at Glendale in 1978. He guided the Vaqueros to the WSC title in 1980. His best season was 1979, when Glendale finished 26-9-1.