Rain Forces Cancellation, Postponements : Athletics: Track season declared over but softball and baseball finals are rescheduled.

The State track and field finals at Cerritos College were canceled by rain Saturday, Meet Director Dean Crowley said.

After a careful review of the facilities, State CIF Commissioner Thomas Byrnes, thinking the conditions were too dangerous for competition, ordered meet management to cancel the meet.

“All decisions regarding placement, records and awards for the meet will be made in consultation with the Track Committee next week,� the CIF said in a four-paragraph statement.

It means the season ended Friday night with only the preliminaries completed.

A steady rain fell throughout the morning and early afternoon, but by 4 p.m., the time the first running event was scheduled to start, it had stopped. The CIF announced its decision after a 1:30 meeting.

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The Southern Section championship baseball games involving Orange County teams have been rescheduled for Wednesday at Anaheim Stadium, Associate Commissioner Bill Clark said Saturday.

The games were rained out Saturday.

Esperanza (24-5) will play second-seeded Simi Valley (27-3) in the Division I championship game at 7:30 p.m. La Quinta (25-5) will play Tustin (21-9-1) in the Division III title game either at 1 p.m. or 4:30 p.m. The time will be finalized today.

The change might affect the starting lineups. Tustin will start pitcher Ronnie Hall instead of Tim Wilson. Hall, the team’s No. 1 starter, is 12-2 and has won two games in the playoffs. Wilson is 6-4.

Hall could have only pitched three innings if the title game had been played Saturday, as section rules allow a pitcher only 10 innings per week. Hall had pitched seven innings in an 8-5 victory over Irvine in the semifinals Tuesday.

The change of dates will also affect the lineups for the Orange County all-star game Tuesday night at Glover Stadium. Esperanza has three players and La Quinta two in the all-star game, but none of them will be allowed to play.

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Irvine (26-5) and Laguna Hills (23-5) must wait a little longer to decide the Southern Section Division III softball champion.

With rain wiping out the championship games, the two teams instead will play at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Lakewood’s Mayfair Park.

The scheduling change might affect the Orange County all-star game, scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Brea-Olinda High. Laguna Hills’ Jennifer Milo and Irvine’s Alleah Poulson and Rebecca Smith were scheduled to participate in that game.