Sixteen local teams were selected to the CIF-Southern Section playoffs on Friday, May 8.
One local team was selected for the Division I field, which is introducing a new double-elimination format this season.
Marmonte League co-champion Oaks Christian (22-6) was selected to Pool C and will visit Sierra Canyon (23-5) in Tuesday’s first round.
Depending on first-round results, the Lions will play either St. John Bosco (22-5) or Cypress (21-7) in Friday’s second round.
First-round games for the remaining eight divisions will be played on Thursday May 14 for Divisions 2, 4, 6 and 8 and Friday, May 15 for Divisions 3, 5, 7 and 9.
Three local teams received top seeds in their division. Westlake is the second seed in Division 2. Agoura is the third seed in Division 3. Moorpark is the second seed in Division 4.
Coastal Canyon League champion Royal (23-3-1) will host Freeway League champion El Modena (22-6), Newbury Park (17-11) will visit Chaminade (17-11) and Marmonte League co-champion Westlake (18-8) will host Alta Loma (18-6-1) in Division 2 first-round play Thursday.
Although Division 2 included three at-large teams, Chaminade and Loyola from the Mission League and Santa Margarita from the Trinity League, Thousand Oaks (17-10) was left out of the field.
Ranked No. 38 in the final Southern Section ratings, the Lancers were the second-highest rated team left out of the field. Mater Dei, the No. 29-rated team, was also left out.
Agoura (15-13), which finished in fifth place in the Marmonte League — one slot behind the Lancers — was the lone local school of the 24 teams that received an at-large berth across nine divisions.
The Chargers will host Liberty League champion Oakwood (21-1) Friday in the first round of the Division 3 playoffs.
Simi Valley (17-10) will also visit second-seeded Arcadia (18-10), the Pacific League champion, in the Division 3 first round.
Second-seeded Moorpark (19-9) will host La Serna (13-14), the Del Rio League champion, in Thursday’s Division 4 first round.
Rio Mesa (17-10) will also host Hesperia (19-7) and Pacifica (14-11) will visit Palm Desert (16-11) in Division 4.
Tri-Valley League champion St. Bonaventure (21-6) will host Mayfair (20-8) Friday in the first round of the Division 5 playoffs.
In the first round of the Division 6 playoffs Thursday, Citrus Coast League champion Hueneme (15-12) will visit Santa Ana-Calvary Chapel (18-10) and Foothill Tech (14-12 will host Bloomington (22-6).
Grace (16-11) will host Beverly Hills (12-9) and Santa Paula (12-15-1) will host Pasadena Poly (11-14) in the first round of the Division 7 playoffs Friday.
Nordhoff (11-14) will host Frontier League champion Bishop Diego (10-5) in the first round of the Division 8 playoffs Thursday.
Omega League champion Ojai Valley (8-4) will host San Luis Obispo Classic (9-7) in the first round of the Division 9 playoffs Friday.
The 16 local teams were among 271 playoff teams across nine divisions in the section.
The field was surprising released on Friday afternoon, 23 hours before its schedule release Saturday at 1 p.m.
CIF-SS baseball finals are scheduled for May 29-30 at Cal State Fullerton’s Goodwin Field and Loan Mart Field in Rancho Cucamonga.
Joe Curley covers baseball for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcspreps on Twitter/X, Instagram/Threads, Facebook, Bluesky and TikTok.
This story will be updated.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: These 16 local teams will compete in the CIF-SS baseball playoffs
Reporting by Joe Curley, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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