Valley Seeded Ninth in Regional--Moorpark, Canyons Left Out

Valley College will play host to Orange Coast on Thursday to open the Southern California regional of the state junior college baseball tournament.

Valley (29-11-1), seeded ninth, is the only Valley-area entry among 14 teams in the playoffs. Orange Coast (30-10-1) is seeded 13th. Valley, which finished second in the Western State Conference playoff tournament last weekend, and Orange Coast played to a 2-2 tie earlier this season.

“We have a very difficult road to hoe,” said Valley Coach Chris Johnson, whose team is likely to meet powerful Rancho Santiago if the Monarchs get past Orange Coast. “But at least we have a home game.”

Moorpark Coach Ron Stillwell, whose team finished third in the WSC tournament, said he was disappointed but not surprised that the Raiders (23-15) did not receive an at-large bid considering the records and finishes of other teams.

“No arguments there,” said Stillwell, whose resignation as Moorpark baseball coach took effect when the Raiders were passed over.

Canyons, which tied Ventura to win a share of its ninth consecutive WSC title but lost in the first round of the conference tournament, was also left out.

The six top-seeded teams received byes into the double-elimination finals that will be held next weekend at Rancho Santiago and Cerritos colleges.

Other first-round games include: Grossmont at Cerritos; East Los Angeles at Rancho Santiago; and Citrus at San Diego Mesa.