The CIF State Federated Council has approved state championships for baseball and softball starting in the 2027 season.
Now, it’s a matter of making the schedule work.
Because of high school graduations, the CIF has had problems getting teams to participate in the baseball and softball regionals over the years.
Adding state finals brings more questions. How do you fit another week into an already crowded end-of-the-school-year schedule?
The CIF will consider a few options, such as:
• Moving the start of the spring seasons up by a week;
• Shaving a week off the baseball and softball seasons, cutting the allowed number of regular-season games from 28 to 24;
• Cutting the schedule by a week or starting early while keeping the number of games the same. That would make for some four-game weeks;
• Cutting down the number of teams that make the playoffs, shortening the postseason.
The 2027 state championships, as proposed, would be held June 4-5, the week immediately following the regional finals.
As proposed, the San Diego Section would be allowed to enter 10 teams over five divisions. The Southern Section would get 20 teams, the Los Angeles Section six and the Central Section four for a total of 40 teams.
Finding sites could be a problem, especially for softball.
Baseball has a number of high-quality minor-league parks such as the ones in Lake Elsinore, Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino, Stockton and the sparkling new facility in Ontario.
More state playoffs
If you count boys and girls as separate entities in sports like track, cross country, wrestling and swimming, the CIF hosts 22 state playoffs.
The proposed addition of baseball and softball state championships leaves just a handful of sports without them: Boys and girls water polo, badminton, boys and girls lacrosse, flag football, beach volleyball, field hockey and gymnastics.
San Diego championships
San Diego Section Commissioner Joe Heinz is big on having championships at college sites.
This year’s CIF San Diego Section swimming and diving finals are being held at Southwestern College. Beach volleyball is at Mesa College, while MiraCosta College will host the boys volleyball finals in Divisions 2 and 5.
UC San Diego is the main site for softball, with San Diego State and USD hosting baseball.
Some game times remain up in the air. The large number of commencement ceremonies scheduled for May 28 and 29, the same weekend as the baseball and softball championships, might force some shuffling. Title-game schedules may not be determined until after the semifinals.
Century mark
El Camino baseball coach Ricky Imperiali reached the 100-win plateau last week.
In his sixth season, he has lifted the Wildcats to respectability. El Camino is 14-12 overall and 8-5 in Palomar League play heading into Friday’s game against Escondido.