DANVILLE — The Kelseyville High School baseball and Middletown High softball teams were both successful in landing at-large berths Sunday during the North Coast Section Class A at-large and seeding meetings in Danville.
They”ll join the Clear Lake softball and Middletown baseball teams, both designated league champions and automatic qualifiers, in the Class A playoffs that get under way today.
The eight-team softball tournament holds first-round games today, semifinals Thursday and the championship game on Saturday. The eight-team baseball tournament is split over two weeks, with first-round games either today or Wednesday, the semifinals on either Friday or Saturday, and the championship game either Friday, June 2 or Saturday, June 3.
Softball
Of the four Lake County teams to reach the postseason, Clear Lake came away with the highest seed at No. 2. The Cardinals (13-1) won the North Central League I South title with an 8-0 record and will open against No. 7 St. Mary”s of Berkeley today at 4 p.m. at Clear Lake High School.
Middletown (12-5) beat out Salesian of Richmond for the final at-large berth in the softball ranks and will travel to Walnut Creek today at 4 p.m. to play No. 1 seed Berean Christian (19-3), champion of the Bay Counties League-East.
In other first-round games today, No. 4 Cloverdale (13-4) hosts No. 5 St. Vincent (10-5) and No. 3 St. Patrick/St. Vincent hits the road to take on No. 6 Fort Bragg (11-8).
The Clear Lake/St. Mary”s and St. Patrick/Fort Bragg winners square off in Thursday”s semifinals. The Cardinals will host that game if they beat St. Mary”s. The other semifinal pairs the St. Vincent/Cloverdale and Berean Christian/Middletown winners.
St. Patrick/St. Vincent was the runner-up in the Bay Shore Athletic League this season. Piedmont, a 2A team, won the league. St. Mary”s came in fourth.
“I know they”re a good team,” Clear Lake coach Gary Pickle said. “They have a good pitcher, a good catcher and a shortstop who could be a Division I player.
“Let”s just say I”m not looking past them,” Pickle said. “You can”t be overconfident in the playoffs.”
Looking back at other seasons when top seeds went by the wayside in the first round, Pickle said that the Cardinals, despite their No. 2 ranking, will have to play a solid game today to advance to the semi-finals.
“It”s a new season and everyone starts over,” Pickle said. “We have to play well to beat these guys. There are no bad teams in our half of the bracket.”
One break for Clear Lake is that Cloverdale and St. Vincent, the second- and third-place teams in the NCL I South this season, are on the other side of the bracket as is No. 1 seed Berean Christian.
“I”m glad I won”t have to see them unless we meet in the finals and I think that would be OK with both of us,” Pickle said.
While Clear Lake beat Cloverdale and St. Vincent twice during league play, all close games, Pickle said the odds usually favor the other guy when a third meeting takes place between two quality teams.
“It”s hard enough to beat good teams like that twice let alone three times, so if we don”t face each other again, that”s fine by me,” Pickle said.
Besides Clear Lake, the only other teams to beat Cloverdale this season were Berean Christian and St. Patrick/St. Vincent.
During the seeding portion of the meeting, both Clear Lake and Berean Christian tied for the No. 1 seed based on a ranking done by the coaches in attendance, according to Pickle. The seeding committee decided on Berean Christian, which won the Class A title in 2004 and lost in the championship game to Cloverdale last season.
Baseball
Middletown (17-4), the NCL I North co-champion, pulled down the No. 4 seed in the baseball bracket and will open at home today against NCL I South champion St. Vincent (15-3). It will be the second meeting this season between the two teams. Middletown won the first, 3-1, in late March at Middletown. First pitch is 4 p.m.
Kelseyville (12-7), the NCL I North co-champion along with Middletown, received the No. 6 seed and travels to Crockett on Wednesday to play No. 3 John Swett (18-4), the BSAL runner-up, at 4 p.m.
Another BSAL team, Salesian (13-10), travels to Oakland on Wednesday to play No. 2 seed Head-Royce (20-4), the BCL-East champion.
With a win on Wednesday, Kelseyville would play the winner of the Salesian-Head-Royce game in the semifinals.
Middletown needs a win today to reach the semifinalss against either No. 1 seed Justin-Siena (18-4), the Marin County Athletic League runner-up, or No. 8 Marin Academy (13-8), the BCL-West champion. Justin-Siena, the defending section champion, hosts Marin Academy today in first-round action.
