It happened last year, and I couldn’t believe it. Six of seven area teams lost in first-round action on the same day, leaving only Alhambra, Maranatha and Pasadena Poly as the lone teams standing. On Thursday, Alhambra, Maranatha and Gabrielino each won their respective first-round games. We’ll cover three games. Our Keith Lair will be at Arcadia, our Nathan Cambridge will cover Pasadena Poly and I’ll be at Monrovia. I urge all coaches/boosters to text me final scores so we can update them, or do it yourself and post scores here.
Also, check this out from Robledo’s blog. Very interesting …
South Hills wins protest — CIF officials denied Montebello’s protest of Thursday’s Division 3 first-round playoff win by South Hills, 3-2. The Oilers argued the Huskies conducted an illegal batting practice before the game. After watching video of the incident provided by Montebello, CIF ruled there was in fact a an illegal batting practice, but it was not enough to warrant a disqualification of South Hills from the playoffs. The rules allow CIF to make a judgment call in situations such as this.
“At the end of the day, nobody is here to penalize kids,” Southern Section Director of Information Thom Simmons said. “Did a penalty occur? Sure. Did a team gain a competitive advantage? No. Did they (South Hills) win on the field? Yes.”
“In the rules, it says a ‘may’ be removed from the playoffs for something like this. Not that they ‘will’ be. The rule allows us that leeway. We don’t think it was worthy of removing a team from the entire playoffs.”
The Huskies knew of the protest before the game and the stress of the situation sent one of the two players involved in the illegal batting practice to the hospital with chest pains, according to a source.
BASEBALL
CIF-SS PLAYOFFS
FIRST ROUND SCORES
DIVISION 2
Valencia 1, Arcadia 0
DIVISION 4
Savanna 5, South Pasadena 0
Oaks Christian 3, Temple City 2
St. Paul 10, La Canada 0 (corrected)
Monrovia 2, La Salle 1
DIVISION 6
Flintridge Prep at Capistrano Valley Christian — Flintridge Prep
Pasadena Poly 12, Nordhoff 2
Rio Hondo Prep at Bloomington Christian — Bloomington Christian
