CIF playoffs: It's time for postseason baseball and softball

May 17—After a whirlwind regular season, the playoffs are here.

Area baseball and softball teams will begin their postseasons this week as they try to survive and advance toward the ultimate goal of a CIF championship.

This is the first time the CIF Central Section playoffs will utilize the new competitive equity system that uses a mix of computer rankings, human inputs and other variables to determine playoff divisions and the overall brackets.

Let's take a look at where some of our teams will be this week.

Baseball

Division 1

That's not the case this year. Based on computer rankings, Righetti is the No. 5 team in the Central Section. That means the Warriors are the No. 5 seed in the eight-team Division 1 bracket and will travel to play at No. 4 Clovis West Thursday at 4:30 p.m. Clovis West is 21-8 overall.

The winner will likely play the top team in the state, No. 1 seed Clovis Buchanan, in the quarterfinals. Buchanan will host No. 8 Bakersfield Frontier Thursday in another first-round game. Righetti nearly stunned Buchanan last year in the first round of the playoffs, losing 7-6 before Buchanan went on to win the Div. 1 title a year ago. Buchanan is 25-4 this year and went 13-2 in the Tri-River Athletic Conference.

Righetti enters the playoffs on a two-game losing streak, losing its last two league games to Paso Robles, both by one run.

No. 2 Bakersfield Stockdale hosts No. 7 Fresno San Joaquin Memorial in another Div. 1 first-round game and No. 5 Fresno Bullard hosts No. 6 Bakersfield Liberty in the other.

Division 2

St. Joseph didn't catch a break in the seedings. The Knights earned the No. 16 seed in Division 2 and will travel to face No. Kerman Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. Kerman is 28-0 on the season and has out-scored its opposition 230-44 on the season.

St. Joseph is 10-18, though the Knights have played some tough competition in 2022 and a tougher schedule than the Lions. Don't count the Knights out just yet, especially if their pitching and defense steps up against the Lions.

Arroyo Grande has an interesting matchup as the Eagles earned the No. 2 seed in the division. They will host rival Nipomo, which got the No. 15 seed in Division 2. Arroyo Grande is 19-10 overall after going 11-7 in Mountain League play.

Nipomo caught a tough break. The Titans are 18-10 overall and finished second in the Ocean League with a 12-3 record. They've won nine straight games. Their reward is the No. 15 seed in a very tough division. Nipomo and Arroyo Grande both started their seasons against each other on Feb. 12, with Arroyo Grande winning 7-2. One of them will also see their season end against the other.

Kerman edged St. Joseph 2-1 in the Knights' second game of the season on Feb. 18, a game that went eight innings.

San Luis Obispo is the No. 3 seed in Division 2 and hosts No. 14 Clovis North and No. 11 Templeton will travel to No. 6 Clovis East.

Division 3

There is some good news for Central Coast teams. Pioneer Valley is in a good spot as the Panthers are the No. 2 seed in Division 3 and will host No. 15 Visalia Mt. Whitney at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The Panthers won the Ocean League championship with a 13-2 record and are 22-5 overall having won 11 straight games. The Pioneers are 14-14 on the season and went 7-8 in the West Yosemite League. .

Pioneer Valley is led by senior Richie Robles who's hitting .506 on the season with 45 hits, 35 runs, 40 RBIs, eight doubles, five triples and three homers. He's slugging over .800 on the season.

Junior Estevan Fonseca will likely get the ball to start the postseason. He's 7-3 on the year with a 1.61 ERA in 61 innings. Andy Morales is also an option on the mound after going 7-0 with 1.92 ERA in 40 innings. Andrew Sandoval has a 1.77 ERA and is 4-1 in 27 2/3 innings and Robles, a left-hander, has a 1.12 ERA in 25 innings.

Morro Bay, which finished third in the Ocean League, is the No. 3 seed and will host Visalia El Diamante (11-16-1) in the first round Tuesday.

Paso Robles, a Mountain League team, is the No. 10 seed in Division 3 at 11-16 overall and will travel to face No. 7 Tulare Western. The Bearcats went 7-11 in the Mountain League.

If Paso Robles and Pioneer Valley both win, Pioneer Valley would host Paso Robles in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

CIF-SS, Division 6

The Southern Section playoffs started two weeks ago and there's one area team remaining: Santa Ynez.

The Pirates travel to Estancia High to play in the CIF-SS Division 6 semifinals.

Santa Ynez is 17-11 overall and the Pirates went 5-10 in a difficult Channel League. Estancia is 26-5 overall.

Softball

Division 1

Mountain League champion Paso Robles is the lone coastal team in the Division 1 bracket. The Bearcats are the No. 6 seed and will travel to face No. 3 Clovis in the first round on Friday. Paso Robles is 18-7 the season. Clovis is 22-6.

Clovis North, at 21-2 overall, is the No. 1 seed and will host No. 8 Stockdale (19-9) in the first round.

Fresno Central is 17-9 and is the No. 4 seed. The Grizzlies host No. 4 Bakersfield Liberty (22-6). No. 2 Buchanan (20-7) hosts No. 7 Bakersfield Centennial (21-7-1) in another game Friday.

Division 2

St. Joseph is the No. 4 seed in Division 2. The Knights will host Visalia El Diamante on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. The Knights are 19-7 overall and are 8-0 at home this season. The Miners are 15-12 overall.

If St. Joseph wins, it'll host the winner of the No. 5 Madera-No. 12 Bakersfield Independence game on Friday.

Arroyo Grande landed the No. 3 seed and will host No. 14 Tulare Western on Wednesday. The Eagles are 15-10-1 overall and the Mustangs are 20-7-1.

Division 4

Pioneer Valley has had a solid season at 15-12-1 overall. They'll travel to face Delano Chavez as the No. 11 seed. Chavez is the No. 6 seed. The Titans are 17-7 on the season.

San Luis Obispo is the No. 10 seed and will travel to play No. 7 Hanford Sierra Pacific on Wednesday. Mission Prep is the No. 2 seed and will host No. 15 Hanford West and No. 4 Morro Bay will host No. 13 Bakersfield on Wednesday.

Division 6

There are two area teams in Division 6.

Nipomo is the No. 6 seed and will host No. 11 Firebaugh on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. Nipomo is 7-11-1 on the season and has been playing better with the return of Key-annah Pu'a, a powerful pitcher that has recovered from a torn ACL.

Firebaugh is 8-13 on the season.

Orcutt Academy is the No. 10 seed and will play at No. 7 Laton in the first round Wednesday.

Orcutt Academy is 11-14-1 on the season and Laton is 14-6. Like Nipomo, Orcutt Academy is also a better team after star pitcher Danica Black has returned from a torn ACL suffered over the summer.

The Orcutt Academy-Laton winner will play the winner of the No. 2 Visalia Central Valley Christian-No. 15 Corcoran game.

The winner of the Nipomo-Firebaugh game will play the winner of the No. 3 Parlier-No. 14 Mendota game.