CONTACT US

Contact Form

    News Details

    Santa Margarita baseball is prepared for the CIF-SS playoffs
    • May 10, 2026

    Santa Margarita’s baseball team finished in last place in the Trinity League, but the Eagles kept practicing even after their final regular-season game.

    Because you never know.

    The Eagles know now that their season isn’t over — it will continue in the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

    Santa Margarita found out Friday that it received an at-large spots in the Division 2 bracket of the playoffs. The Eagles (15-13 overall) will play a first-round game Thursday at Rancho Christian in Temecula. Rancho Christian (22-4 overall) won the Sunbelt League championship.

    Teams have to earn one of their league’s automatic spots in the playoffs or they can get into the playoffs as an at-large team — if a spot in the bracket is available — if they have an overall record that is .500 or better.

    Santa Margarita got one of the three at-large berths in Division 2.

    The CIF-SS used the Massey Ratings System to place teams into the nine playoff divisions and to seed them. Rankings are used for the same purpose in other CIF-SS sports, including football, basketball and softball.

    Strength of schedule is important to a team’s rating, so playing in the mighty Trinity League did influence Santa Margarita’s rating number even though the Eagles finished last in league.

    Thousand Oaks was Santa Margarita’s top competition for Division 2’s final at-large berth. Thousand Oaks was above Santa Margarita in the ratings going into Tuesday – Thousand Oaks had a rating of 8.159, Santa Margarita was at 8.116.

    Santa Margarita beat Capistrano Valley 9-0 on Tuesday; Thousand Oaks played its final regular-season game May 1. The final day of the regular season was Wednesday, and that was when Santa Margarita rose above Thousand Oaks in the ratings – Santa Margarita finished with a rating of 8.142; Thousand Oaks 8.115.

    Santa Margarita coach Chris Malec said he gave the team’s players two days off before resuming practice.

    “We didn’t want to be caught scrambling if we got the opportunity to be in the playoffs,” Malec said. “So we decided to have some fun practices, just to be prepared if we got the opportunity.”

    CIF-SS assistant commissioner Joe Hoggatt, in charge of the section’s management of the baseball playoffs, said Saturday afternoon that he had not reviewed the tiny changes in the ratings for Santa Margarita and Thousand Oaks and the dozens of other baseball teams that had altered numbers over 48 hours.

    Most of the queries Hoggatt received Saturday morning were about why a league champion was playing a first-round away game against a team that had finished lower in its league’s standings. For decades, a league champion was guaranteed a first-round home game. Now, when two teams meet in the first round, the team with the higher rating is the home team.

    “League finishes are still important to playoff eligibility,” Hoggatt said. “But that’s about it.”

    DIVISION 1

    The Division 1 playoffs have 16 teams this season and start out in a pool-play format. Each team is guaranteed two games.

    The Division 1 pools in order of seeding:

    Pool A: Norco, Notre Dame/SO, Ayala, Maranatha.

    Pool B: Harvard-Westlake, Temecula Valley, Huntington Beach, La Mirada.

    Pool C: Sierra Canyon, St. John Bosco, Cypress, Oaks Christian.

    Pool D: Orange Lutheran, Corona, Etiwanda, Corona Santiago.

    Tate Belfanti (3) of Cypress pitches against Foothill in a Crestview League baseball game at Foothill High School in Santa Ana on Friday, April 24, 2026. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
    Tate Belfanti (3) of Cypress pitches against Foothill in a Crestview League baseball game at Foothill High School in Santa Ana on Friday, April 24, 2026. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

    For the Orange County teams in Division 1, the opening matchups are: Huntington Beach at Temecula Valley, Cypress at St. John Bosco, and Orange Lutheran plays Corona Santiago at Hart Park. All games are at 3:15 p.m.

    Orange Lutheran often plays night games at Hart Park, but Tuesday’s game has a 3:15 p.m. start.

    In each pool the winners of Tuesday’s games will play each other Friday. The teams that emerge from Friday at 2-0 advance to the quarterfinals.

    The losers of Tuesday’s games will play each other Friday, too. The teams that emerge from Friday at 0-2 are eliminated.

    The 1-1 teams play each other May 19. The winners of those games advance to the quarterfinals.

    The winners in the quarterfinals advance to the semifinals (May 26), the winners of the semifinals advance to the final, which will be played May 29 or 30.

    “I think we’re looking at the top 16 teams in the section there,” Hoggatt said of the Division 1 group. “It’s going to be fun to watch how it all plays out.”

     

     Orange County Register 

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    News