Saddleback to host Regional of Champions
The California Community College Athletic Association (3C2A) Regional Playoffs continue this weekend from eight different venues around the state. Saddleback will be one of the host sites and welcome both Glendale College and El Camino College to town for a three-team, double-elimination tournament.
The regional is being labeled the "Regional of Champions", as the only remaining conference champions from Southern California are all crammed into the Saddleback regional. As a side note, Santa Barbara City College is the lone other remaining school to claim a partial conference title after tying for first place in the Western States Conference North Division standings. However, the Vaqueros were seeded behind the team they tied, Cuesta College, as a result of losing 2-of-3 games during the regular season. SBCC will play in the Santa Ana College Regional, who along with Fullerton College and Southwestern College will host regionals.
REGIONAL GAME TIMES
Games will be played starting Thursday at 12:00 PM when Glendale and El Camino open the tournament. The loser of that game will face Saddleback 90 minutes after the completion of the game. Should Saddleback defeat the loser of game one, the next two days would have a best-of-three-series between the two remaining teams to decide a regional winner with one game on Friday and one or two games on Saturday. Should Saddleback lose game two on Thursday, they would need to beat the winner of game three on Friday (12 PM) in order to remain in the tournament. If Saddleback were to lose its opening game on Thursday and win its second game on Friday, the tournament would go back to the beginning structure for a single-elimination tournament with Glendale playing El Camino on Friday afternoon (approximately 4-4:30) in game four of the tournament. All games are scheduled for 12:00 PM and 4:00 PM (at earliest) each day, with a mandatory 90 minutes in between games.
REGIONAL TEAMS
Saddleback (31-10) comes into the regional as the champions of the Orange Empire Conference (OEC) after rallying from four games back in the standings in the final two weeks of the season to edge Riverside City College for the OEC title. The Bobcats defeated Long Beach City College in two straight games last weekend (4-3, 18-8).
Glendale (31-11) comes into the regional as the champions of the Western State Conference South Division. The Vaqueros led the WSC-S for most of the season, winning the south division by three games over Los Angeles Valley College. Glendale won two straight games from Pasadena City College last weekend to advance (4-2, 4-0).
El Camino College (30-12) was the champions of the South Coast Conference (SCC), clinching the conference title on the final day of the regular season. The Warriors downed Mt. San Jacinto College in two straight games last weekend (2-0, 13-3).
The winner of the Saddleback College regional will move on to play the winner of the Southwestern College Regional the following weekend in the Regional Finals.
Tickets for the event can be purchased at the following link. TICKETS
Game programs are available from any smart device at the following link. PROGRAM
Southern California Regional Brackets
