Baseball: Los Alamitos doesn't receive home-town advantage

The Southern Section wasn't very neighborly when it mapped out its Southern Section-Toyota Division I playoff pairings Monday.

Los Alamitos, which is located just down the road from the section offices, was seeded No. 1 in the division, but also drew the toughest road to the semifinals, in my professional opinion. The best team in the division not to win a league championship is Mater Dei, and the Monarchs and Los Alamitos will meet in the quarterfinals should both win their first two games.

Not sure why the Monarchs couldn't have been placed in Valencia's spot in the same half of the bracket, forcing fourth-seeded Simi Valley to go through Mater Dei to reach the semifinals.

As we have learned, victories are about as guaranteed in the baseball playoffs as a plane leaving on time from LAX, but it's too bad either Los Alamitos or Mater Dei won't make the semifinals. I believe they are two of the top three teams in the division, along with second-seeded Orange Lutheran.

Capistrano Valley was also placed in that same quarter of the bracket, and the Cougars might be as hot as any team in the division, owning a 10-game winning streak heading into the postseason. I'd rather see the Cougars in Norco's spot in the bottom half of the bracket.

-- Dan Arritt

Comments

[Eric Maddy]

The key reason Mater Dei got a less-favorable draw is because they were ranked eighth in the final CIF poll. If the advisory committee felt they were the third-best team in the division, they would have been seeded (fourth, because they'd have to be in the opposite bracket from Lutheran).

The biggest thing I noticed with the bracket is that the teams ranked 2, 3, 4, and 5 in the final CIF Division I rankings all ended up in the bottom half of the bracket (in large part because #3 Wilson and #4 TO didn't win their leagues). Ironically, if the committee had thought a bit more highly of Mater Dei and had seeded them, it would have allowed them to get either Wilson or TO into that quarter of the bracket and make it a little better balanced top-to-bottom.