Villa Park, Foothill Not No. 1 in This Poll

The Villa Park baseball team and the Foothill softball team finished atop their respective Orange County sportswriters’ season-ending polls, but neither received the top seedings in their divisions when the Southern Section playoff pairings were announced Monday.

Villa Park (24-2) is the No. 2-seeded team in the Division III baseball playoffs. The Spartans open play Friday against the winner of today’s wild-card game between El Monte and Artesia. West Torrance (25-1) is top-seeded in Division III.

University (22-4) earned the top seeding in Division II and La Quinta (25-2) in Division IV. No county teams are seeded in Divisions I and V.

In softball, Foothill (28-2) is seeded No. 3 in Division I. Mater Dei (27-1) is the division’s top-seeded team and Los Alamitos (18-8) is seeded No. 4.

Rosary, which handed Mater Dei its only loss of the season, is the top-seeded team in Division IV. Capistrano Valley Christian (20-2) is Division VI’s No. 1 team, and Sonora (22-7) is seeded No. 2 in Division III.

The baseball playoffs begin today with four wild-card games. Fountain Valley (17-9), everybody’s preseason No. 1 pick, looks to reach Division I’s first round with a victory at Paramount (13-10).

Aliso Niguel (11-14) travels to Trabuco Hills (17-9) for a Division II game, and in Division V, Whittier Christian (14-9) plays at San Pedro Mary Star of the Sea (10-15) and St. Margaret’s (12-7) plays at Ontario Christian (15-8).

The softball wild-card round is Wednesday, when Sunny Hills (13-11) plays at Chino Don Lugo (17-7) and Woodbridge (19-12) travels to Trabuco Hills (13-14) for Division II games. In Division IV, Costa Mesa (9-11) plays at Ocean View (8-17).

First-round baseball and softball games are Friday. The baseball championship games will be played at Long Beach Blair Field this year, with the Division I and VI games on June 2 and the Division II, III, IV and V games on June 3.

The softball championship games will be played at Lakewood Mayfair Park, June 2-3.

BASEBALL PLAYOFFS

* University, La Quinta and Villa Park are county’s strongest title contenders. Page V3

SOFTBALL PLAYOFFS

* Calvary Chapel and Orange Lutheran are unseeded despite high rankings. Page V3

COMPLETE PAIRINGS: Page D9