When Corona declined its invitation to play in the CIF Southern California Regional Division I baseball playoffs, that created an opening.
Villa Park will fill that opening.
CIF Southern Section Division 1 and 2 semifinalists automatically qualified for the CIF SoCal Regional. Corona played in the CIF-SS Division 1 semifinals, losing to eventual champion St. John Bosco 2-0, but passed on the regional opportunity. Villa Park lost to Bosco 4-3 in the Division 1 quarterfinals on May 23.
Villa Park (24-7) will play at El Cajon Granite Hills (24-0-2) in the regional Division I first round on Tuesday. Granite Hills is 24-0-2 and a CIF San Diego Section champion
Mater Dei lost to West Ranch 2-1 in the CIF-SS Division 2 final on Saturday. The Monarchs (19-14) were placed in Division I for the regional playoffs and will play at Crespi (24-3).
Santa Margarita (20-13) is seeded second, behind St. John Bosco, in the Division I playoffs. Santa Margarita plays at home against San Diego Patrick Henry (21-10-2) in the first round Tuesday. The Eagles lost to St. John Bosco 3-2 in the CIF-SS Division 1 final on Friday.
Fountain Valley (18-14), which lost to Mater Dei 5-4 in the CIF-SS Division 2 semifinals, is the No. 1-seeded team in CIF SoCal Regional Division 2. The Barons are home against Rancho Bernardo (18-13) on Tuesday.
Estancia High School baseball team poses with the championship plaque after beating Marshall in the championship game of the CIF-SS Division 6 playoffs at Cal State Fullerton’s Goodwin Field. (Photo by Sam Gangwer/Contributing Photographer)
CIF-SS Division 6 champion Estancia (20-13) is home against Mary Star (18-12) on Tuesday.
All regional brackets have eight teams. All games are at home-team sites.
Regional first-round games are Tuesday at 4 p.m. Semifinals are Thursday at 4 p.m. Regional championship games are Saturday at 4 p.m.
Admission to first round and semifinals games is $9 for adults and $5 for children, students and senior citizens. Admission to the finals is $12 for adults and $8 for children, students and senior citizens. GoFan.co is the exclusive ticketing partner for CIF athletics.