CIF Southern Section High School Baseball Playoff Brackets, Divisions 1-9

Happy Mother's Day?

The CIF Southern Section released it's baseball playoff pairings on Friday afternoon instead of Saturday afternoon, which frees up the weekend to celebrate mothers national wide. But it also gives teams an extra day to prepare, especially the Division 1 teams which will start playing earlier than all the other divisions (2-9).

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Division 1 will start pool play on Tuesday, May 12.

The extra day is huge for the Division 1 teams. It’s one thing to practice, it’s another to practice knowing who your opponent is.

“The extra day to prepare is huge, no doubt,” Harvard-Westlake coach Jared Halpert said.

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If the pairings were to be released Saturday afternoon, it would leave most teams with one practice on Monday to prepare because it’s against CIF rules to do any team activities on a Sunday.

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Halpert feels like first-year CIF assistant commissioner in charge of baseball, Joe Hoggatt, had a lot to do with the early release.

“The feel Joe has for the baseball community and what the coaches want is amazing. I think this early release has something to do with Joe. This extra time is valuable, he knows that. This is the best baseball in America. Credit to Joe,” Halpert said.

NEW D1 POOL PLAY FORMAT

Here are the 16 teams that make up the Division 1 playoffs and the matchups in the first round of pool play for Tuesday, May 12.

POOL A: Maranatha at Norco, Ayala at Notre Dame/Sherman Oaks
POOL B: Etiwanda at Corona, Santiago/Corona at Orange Lutheran
POOL C: Oaks Christian at Sierra Canyon, Cypress at St. John Bosco
POOL D: Huntington Beach at Temecula Valley, La Mirada at Harvard-Westlake

Pool play guarantees each team at least two games. After the first round of pool play, the teams that are 1-0 play each other. The teams that are 0-1 play each other.

Teams that go 0-2 are disqualified. Teams that go 2-0 advance to the quarterfinal, knockout stage. Teams that go 1-1 will play each other in a third game to advance. Two teams from each pool move on.

NOTE: In Division 1 pool play, the team that's played the least amount of home games gets to host (the next game). If it's the same, it's a coin flip, which is similar to subsequent divisions.

PLAYOFF BRACKETS

Divisions 2, 4, 6, and 8 will start on Thursday. Divisions 3, 5, 7, and 9 will start Friday.

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