Baseball: Division 1 tournament is ‘nasty’

For the first time in the 11-year history of JSerra, the Lions are the No. 1 seed in the Southern Section Division 1 playoffs. They’ll probably hold off on any celebration for a while.

“It’s as nasty as nasty can be,” JSerra Coach Brett Kay said of a tournament loaded with top pitchers and top teams.

How good is Division 1? There’s debate about which bracket is tougher.

In the top bracket are JSerra, the Trinity League champion; Harvard-Westlake, the defending Division 1 champion; Huntington Beach, ranked No. 1 by The Times, and Agoura, which went unbeaten in the Marmonte League. Also in the bracket are wild-card teams Mater Dei, Edison and Chaminade.

In the bottom bracket are Loyola, the Mission League champion; Fountain Valley, the Sunset League champion; Santa Margarita, which has pitcher Griffin Canning; Hart, the Foothill League champion; Norco, which has lost just two games all season, and Long Beach Wilson, which would have been a top four seed if not for a regular-season finale loss to Millikan. Also in the bracket are wild-card teams Orange Lutheran, Mission Viejo and Trabuco Hills.

It’s going to make for a wild, unpredictable single-elimination tournament. The two surviving teams that make it to Dodger Stadium on June 6 will have earned it, for sure.

I’m picking Huntington Beach to win the top bracket and Loyola in the bottom. And Huntington Beach will be the champion.