The 2016 CIF Southern Section Ford Boys Baseball playoff pairings were released Monday, May 16, and the road to championships for 13 of our local teams begin this week with wild card games set to start as early as Wednesday, May 18.
Division 1
The Murrieta Mesa Rams (22-7, 12-3), who took the Southwestern League by storm this season and ranked No. 6 in the final CIF-SS rankings, are the #1 seed in Division 1, Vista Murrieta (20-10, 11-4) secured the #2 seed and Great Oak (16-14, 9-6), who were the third place team this season in league, will have to fight to get to round one as a wild card selection.
Round one games will begin Friday, May 20, and the Rams, who will be the home team, will find out who they play after Wednesday’s wild card game between Lakewood (20-10, 8-4) and Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks) (19-10, 10-8).
Vista Murrieta will travel to face Aliso Niguel (21-9, 7-5), the second place team from the South Coast League, and Great Oak will be at home midweek to face Dana Hills (13-16, 5-7), who were the third place team out of the South Coast League as well. A win for the Wolfpack in that first game will send them to San Jaun Capistrano to face the No. 1 ranked Jserra Lions (21-6, 10-2) out of the Trinity League.
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Division 3
Temescal Canyon (19-9, 11-1), the big winner out of the Sunbelt League and ranked No. 10 in the final CIF-SS rankings, are the #1 seed as the playoffs start, Paloma Valley (17-9, 9-3) are the #2 seed and Elsinore (12-18, 7-6) snuck in as the #3 seed and will have to fight to get to round one via a wild card game midweek.
The Titans, who beat Paloma Valley in a showdown for the title last week, will be home to face Corona Del Mar (21-4, 11-3), the third place team out of a very strong Pacific Coast League. The Wildcats will also be home this week as they take on Charter Oak (14-11, 11-4) out of the Hacienda League and Elsinore will have to fight on the road against Xavier Prep (11-15, 6-6) in order to get to the first round, where they would face the No. 9 ranked Culver City Centaurs (19-7, 10-0).
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Division 5
Only two local teams from Div. 5 will see action this week which include Temecula’s Linfield Christian School and Hemet’s Tahquitz Titans. The Linfield Lions, who garnished one of the best overall regular season records here locally, 21-6, will travel to face Windward (14-8, 8-6), the fourth place team out of the Gold Coast League, in a wild card game Wednesday, May 18. A win against the Wildcats will pit the Lions against the Banning Broncos (16-4, 12-3) in first round action Friday, May 20. The second place Tahquitz Titans (15-9, 11-4), of the Mountain Pass League, will travel to take on the Olympic League second place team, the No. 10 ranked Maranatha Minutemen (19-7-1, 9-3) Friday, May 20.
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Division 6
A good amount of action will take place in the Division 6 playoffs as five local teams will take the field Thursday, May 19, in hopes of making it to the second round of the CIF-SS playoffs.
Calvary Murrieta (16-5, 9-1), ranked No. 3 as the South Valley League champs, will face St. Genevieve (6-11, 5-5) out of the Santa Fe League in the first round, No. 10 ranked Rancho Christian (17-7, 8-2), who took second place in the SVL under new head coach Tony Nobiensky (formerly of TVHS), had their best season to date and will face local neighbors to the East from the Arrowhead League, the California Lutheran C-Hawks (11-9, 11-3), Temecula Prep (10-9-1, 5-5), also of the SVL, will travel to Bermuda Dunes to face Desert Christian Academy (11-11-1, 6-2) while the Anza based Hamilton Bobcats (13-5, 12-1), who took the Arrowhead League championship, will be home to face Redlands Adventist (10-8, 6-6) of the Victory League.
The championship finals are slated for Saturday, June 4. Divisions 1, 2, and 3 will play at San Manuel Baseball Stadium in San Bernardino and Divisions 4, 5, 6 and 7 at the University of California, Riverside Baseball Stadium. All games with the exception of championship games are scheduled to begin at 3:15 p.m. unless otherwise noted.
*Schedules, standings and rankings provided by MaxPreps and the California Interscholastic Federation – Southern Section.
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