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Freshman London Lefler plays three sports for Newbury Park High: flag football, girls basketball and baseball. Watch her play baseball on April 14, 2025.
The Simi Valley High baseball team has been impatiently awaiting the CIF-Southern Section playoffs.
As hot the Pioneers were to end the regular season, when they won the final 14 games to come from behind and edge rival Royal in an unforgettable Coastal Canyon League race, rest was the last thing on their mind this week.
“I wish we didn’t have such a big layoff,” Simi Valley coach Scott Vermette said.
Simi Valley was the second seed and Marmonte League co-champion Oaks Christian was the third seed in the Division 2 baseball field, which included five local teams, when CIF-SS announced its postseason pairings on Monday, May 12.
“We feel like we can deal with anybody,” Vermette said before the pairings were announced. “We’re feeling really good going into this thing, obviously with a 14-game winning streak.
“But you know it’s just a start for us. We’re not looking just to go to the first round of the playoffs. We’re looking to continue our winning streak and you know just play good baseball.”
Simi Valley enters the postseason with a pair of junior aces in Kyle Casey (8-0, 1.02 ERA) and Jackson Goshorn (8-2, 1.49).
The Pioneers have been led offensively by Evan Rodriguez, who is hitting .432 with 10 doubles and a triple. The sophomore delivered the walk-off hit in the 3-2, title-deciding win over Royal.
Simi Valley (22-5) will host Ventura (21-6-1) in an all-county first-round matchup on Friday, May 16.
The Cougars also finished the regular season hot, winning their last 10 and 15 of their last 16 to split the Channel League title with Santa Barbara.
Senior Josh Woodworth is hitting .380 with five home runs and 22 RBIs. Senior Wylan Nelson is hitting .388 with five home runs and 35 runs scored. Both are big cogs in a pitching staff that boasts a 1.33 ERA.
Pacifica was seeded fourth in Division 4. Channel Islands was the top seed in Division 7.
Thousand Oaks (15-12) and Grace (11-11-2) were the two local teams to earn at-large berth berths in Divisions 4 and 7, respectively.
The CIF-SS seeded 280 teams across nine divisions. First-round games are Thursday, May 15, for Divisions 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 and Friday, May 16, for Divisions 2, 4, 6 and 8.
Section finals are scheduled for May 30-31 at Cal State Fullerton’s Goodwin Field and Blair Field in Long Beach.
In the other three local games in Division 2, Royal (22-6) will host Sultana (21-3-1), Oaks Christian (19-8) will host Redlands East Valley (20-8), and Westlake (20-8) will visit San Clemente (18-10).
Calabasas (17-11) will host San Dimas (15-10) in Division 3.
In Division 4, Pacifica (19-9) will host California (20-8) and Thousand Oaks (15-12) will host La Quinta (16-12).
In Division 5, Citrus Coast League champion Santa Paula (14-11) will visit Liberty (11-11), Camarillo (12-16) will host Orange Vista (14-12), and Hueneme (17-8) will visit Riverside Poly (14-11).
Tri-Valley League champion St. Bonaventure (14-14) will host Pasadena (10-13-1) and Foothill Tech (14-13) will host South El Monte (19-7) in Division 6.
In Division 7, Channel Islands (12-13) will host Coachella Valley (11-8), Grace (11-11-2) will visit Vasquez (16-8), and Thacher (9-7) will visit Riverside-Notre Dame (17-9)
Fillmore’s $4.4 million Booty Sanchez Varsity Baseball Field will host the postseason in its inaugural season. The Flashes (9-17) will play San Maria-Valley Christian (9-6) in Division 8.
CIF-SS expanded its postseason to a ninth division this spring and two local teams are part of that bracket.
Beacon Hill (4-3) will visit Twentynine Palm (9-8) and Ojai Valley (10-6) will visit Animo Leadership (13-13) in the first Division 9 playoffs.
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 and Bluesky.