Softball notes: Highly-ranked Edison misses playoffs as at-large candidate

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Edison’s softball team ended the ultra-tough Surf League by grinding out a victory to finish one game out of first place and as essentially the third-best club from the four-team group.

But unfortunately for the Chargers, their impressive victories against Division 1 contenders Los Alamitos (twice) and Huntington Beach (twice) in the league weren’t enough to get them into the playoffs Monday.

The Chargers (16-10), ranked sixth in Orange County and No. 10 in the final Division 2 poll, were a glaring omission as the CIF-Southern Section revealed its playoff pairings.

Division 2’s 32-team bracket was stocked with all automatic qualifiers – 33, to be exact – and there was no room for at-large berths, including Coach Melissa Roth’s Edison team.

“It’s just awful,” Edison athletic director Rich Boyce said. “Very tough break for Edison softball. CIF has to fix that from happening. … It’s just not a good look.”

The Surf League’s automatic entries went to co-champions Marina (Division 2) and Los Alamitos (Division 1). Huntington Beach – which lost 2 of 3 to Edison in tying with the Chargers for third in the Surf League – found an at-large berth in Division 1.

The crowded Division 2 bracket almost didn’t include Marina, the No. 1 seed on Monday. If Edison and Arkansas-bound ace Jenna Bloom didn’t beat Huntington Beach 1-0 last week, the Surf League’s three-way tie for first place would have pushed the Vikings to at-large status based on the head-to-head series tie-breaker.

Boyce said the Sunset Conference might discuss the possibility of presenting a proposal in the future to the section council to help ease these types of scenarios. The next releaguing cycle also could offer relief.

Section assistant commission Thom Simmons said the organization sympathies with Edison but mentioned the past releaguing cycle.

“The CIF-SS is not involved in releaguing and once those schools in Orange County broke up those eight schools into two leagues of four, they did so with the knowledge that four-team leagues only get two automatic entries,” he said.

The Surf League will return for its second-year next spring with a similar setup. “Group of death,” Boyce said.

Top seeds

Sonora, co-champion of the Freeway League with La Habra, won a coin-flip with the Highlanders for the league’s No. 1 playoff entry and earned the No. 4 seed in Division 2.

Other top seeds: Godinez in Division 4 (second to undefeated Aquinas), Whittier Christian in Division 5 (third), Santiago (first) and Anaheim (third) in Division 6 and La Quinta in Division 7 (fourth).

Best first-round games

Two of the best Division 1 games to watch Thursday: Mater Dei (14-10-1) at Esperanza (18-8) and Huntington Beach (15-8) at fourth-seeded Grand Terrace (25-3-1). Esperanza features some talented hitters while Grand Terrace placed fifth at Carew Classic.

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