Coin Flip Keeps Moorpark Out

Moorpark High won a share of the Marmonte League baseball title, but the Musketeers won’t get the chance to play for a Southern Section championship after getting shut out of the Division II playoffs Monday when pairings were released.

The rare circumstance was the result of a four-way tie atop the league standings. Moorpark, Agoura, Newbury Park and Westlake each posted a 7-5 league record, necessitating the use of tiebreakers, including a coin flip, to determine the league’s three automatic playoff entrants.

Agoura and Newbury Park received the first and second entries, respectively, because they had the best records against the other champions, each going 4-2. Agoura gained the first entry because it swept Newbury Park in the regular-season series.

That left Westlake and Moorpark, each going 2-4 against the other champions, for the third entry. Since the teams split their two-game regular-season games, they flipped a coin Thursday to determine the third entry, and Westlake won.

Moorpark Coach Scott Fullerton still figured his team would make the playoffs as an at-large entrant and conducted practices over the weekend. Then he heard Monday that there were no at-large entries in Division II.

“It’s a tough way to not go in after being a co-champion,” Fullerton said. “The kids were pretty devastated. I told them, ‘Sometimes life isn’t fair.’”

Fullerton acknowledged that Moorpark could have avoided the letdown by winning either of its final two league games. “We had opportunities that we didn’t cash in on,” he said.

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