Baseball: Looking back on Thursday’s first rounders

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With a bunch of playoff games already in the books, I thought I’d go over some of the region‘s more notable performances to come out of the first round of the Southern Section-Toyota divisional playoffs.

Simi Valley flying high: Thanks to a grand slam by Nick Russo, pictured, the fourth-seeded Pioneers cruised to a 12-2 victory over Vista Del Lago. It’s a little surprising it took four innings for Simi Valley to get its bats going, but, in the end, it showed why it’s definitely one of the favorites for the divisional title.

Saugus done: I really thought the Saugus-Norco Division I playoff game could go either way, but I was feeling good about the Centurions’ chances after their regular-season ending victory over Valencia on Friday. Well, everything was going smoothly until the sixth inning, when a leadoff home run by Matt Hobgood rallied Norco to a 5-2 victory. I really expected more out of Saugus this season, but finishing third in league really made it difficult for the Centurions to get far in the postseason.

High Spirits: Just days after winning a two-day, 13-inning marathon against L.A. Baptist to grab the Olympic League‘s final playoff spot, Paraclete pulled off a 5-2 upset victory over Christian League champion Western Christian. Of course, Tuesday’s second-round game against Monrovia will tell us if the Spirits are a legitimate title threat.

Same old Golden League: The big knock against the Golden League is when the playoffs start, the teams usually flop faster than Vlade Divac in the paint. There are some exceptions to this rule (Knight boys’ basketball and Quartz Hill volleyball comes to mind), but it seems this early-round exit theory is at work again. Both Lancaster and Knight fell hard in Tuesday’s Division III wild-card games and second-place Palmdale lost, 10-4, to Don Lugo on Thursday. Quartz Hill escaped with a 1-0 victory over Bellflower thanks to Brandon Van Dam‘s three-hitter, but things are going to get a lot tougher on Tuesday against a never-give-up Downey squad.

By the way, I went 11-2 in my picks on Thursday and I actually predicted a couple of scores correctly. However, I’m kicking myself for doubting my boys from Paraclete.

Also, here are the updated brackets. And go here for complete scores.

-- Austin Knoblauch

-- Image from Austin Knoblauch