It was about 15 years ago when Joe Hoggatt presented to the CIF Southern Section a plan to change CIF-SS baseball playoffs from its single-elimination format to a best-of-three format.
The plan had support in the baseball coaching fraternity. The CIF-SS Council members, representatives of the Southern Section’s leagues, with what seemed to be limited interest silently absorbed Hoggatt’s proposal and voted it down.
Hoggatt was the baseball coach at Canyon at the time. Now he is the CIF Southern Section assistant commissioner in charge of baseball. And he has a similar plan in place that goes into effect in the playoffs that begin in five weeks.
CIF Southern Section Division 1 baseball playoffs changes from a 32-team, single-elimination bracket to a 16-tean pool-play format that guarantees all of the division’s 16 teams two games.
“The game has evolved to where the top teams have really separated themselves from the rest,” Hoggatt said. “I think far fewer than 32 teams have a real chance to win it in Division 1.”
Also this system eliminates byes in Division 1 baseball. Five teams had first-round byes in Division 1 last season.
“I don’t think anyone wants any byes at all,” said Hoggott, who also was the baseball coach at Bishop Amat for 11 seasons after 12 seasons as baseball coach at Canyon. “When you get into the playoffs you want to play those games.”
The CIF Southern will use the Massey Ratings System’s computer power rankings at the end of the regular season to place teams into divisions and seed them in those divisions. The top 16 teams in this season’s final computer power rankings go to the Division 1 playoffs.
The 16 teams will be placed into four pools of four teams each.
The 16 teams play two pool-play games. The 2-0 teams skip the third round and are placed into the quarterfinals.
The 1-1 teams play each other in the third round – which is being called “The Knockout Stage” – with the winners of that round advancing to the quarterfinal, and the 0-2 teams are eliminated.
That places eight teams in the quarterfinals for single-elimination games. As usual, quarterfinals winners play in the semifinals and semis winners play in the championship game.
The other eight CIF-SS baseball playoff divisions will continue to have 32-team, single-elimination brackets.
Hoggatt said he had worked in recent years with his predecessor assistant commissioner, Rich Shearer, on conceiving a new format and, once it was finalized, received the approval of Commissioner Mike West to move the plan forward.
Baseball Division 1 might be the most-difficult team championship to win in the Southern Section. All of the teams are great and most of them have pitchers who are future college and/or pro starts. One ball-strike call that doesn’t go your way, one double play you don’t turn, and in a game with 21 outs those little things can make a big difference.
Baseball coaches long have pined for some version of a double-elimination or best-of-three system in their playoffs. Now, they have one.
“I totally approve,” said Cypress coach John Weber, whose team could be destined for Division 1 inclusion. “I’ve been pushing for it because I do believe in my heart of hearts that it’s the right thing to do for baseball.”
“I love it,” said Huntington Beach coach Benji Medure, also running a team that looks Division 1-bound. “They finally listened.”
“They” did not listen to Hoggatt’s plan many years ago. This time, Hoggatt was in a better position to make it happen.
NOTES
The latest Massey computer ratings of CIF-SS baseball teams, and still there are a couple of problems as there were with last week’s initial release of the ratings. Orange Lutheran is No. 2 in the latest Maxpreps.com baseball national rankings but is only at No. 51 in the Southern Section. The Massey system appears to not properly value out-of-state results like Orange Lutheran’s championship in the National High School Invitational tournament. …
The Orange County baseball teams in the top 16 of those rankings are Newport Harbor at No. 7, Huntington Beach at No. 9 and Cypress at No. 14. …
Santa Margarita sophomore right-handed pitcher Tyler George in seven starts is 7-0 with a 0.85 ERA, 34 strikeouts and two walks. …
The CIF-SS boys volleyball playoff bulletin has an example of what a Division 1 eight-team pool-play format would look like. It could be that, instead, Division 1 boys volleyball goes with a 12- or 16-team bracket. This past fall’s Division 1 girls volleyball playoffs had a 12 teams in a 16-team bracket. …
Boys volleyball, Tuesday (April 14): Tesoro at San Clemente. San Clemente is 14-9 overall and in first place in the South Coast League with its 5-0 league record. Tesoro is in second place in the league at 4-1 and is 19-6 overall. …
The fast and record-setting times by the relay teams and individuals at the Rosary and Servite track programs have been helped by a change made by Rosary and Servite coach Brandon Thomas. “We took a new approach to the season,” Thomas said. “We’re not working as hard at practice, so now we’re more fresh and competition-ready.” …
Rosary set the Orange County 4X100 relay record last week at the Trabuco Hills Invitational with a time of 45.02 seconds. Servite set the state 4X100 record with a time of 39.82. …
Rosary and Servite will be among the fabulous field of athletes at this weekend’s Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High. The invitational running events begin Saturday at 5 p.m. …
Los Alamitos plans to introduce its next football head coach early next week. Ray Fenton vacated the position to become football head coach at Orange Lutheran. Speculation comes around at times that Corona Centennial coach Matt Logan is en route to Los Alamitos, but he said he is not leaving Centennial. …
Westminster High athletic trainer Abby Robinson has been named the winner of the sixth annual Henry Schein Medical Athletics and Schools Rising Star Award. According to a press release, “ … Robinson was recognized for going above and beyond to ensure her student-athletes receive the best possible care. She also founded and leads the Sports Medicine Internship Program, mentoring students and inspiring many to pursue careers in the field.” …
The Beckman cheerleading team is having a unique fundraiser on Saturday at Irvine Spectrum. Mazda is providing a small fleet of cars for free test drives, with Mazda donating $50 to the cheer squad for each test drive completed. The fundraiser goes from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., near Dave & Buster’s. Beckman won a Universal Cheerleaders Association national championship last school year. …