COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Pierce Secures Playoff Berth With Victory, Valley Loss

Valley College squandered its chance to secure second place in the Western State Conference and an automatic playoff berth by losing to Canyons, 12-1, Saturday in the regular-season baseball finale at Valley.

The loss dropped the Monarchs (20-16, 19-11 in conference play) into a tie for second with Pierce (22-15, 19-11), which defeated Santa Monica. Because Pierce won all three games against Valley this season, the Brahmas earned the Southern California regional playoff berth awarded to the second-place team. Valley must hope for an at-large berth.

First-place Canyons (29-8, 26-4) pounded 18 hits against five pitchers. John Aguilar went two for three and hit a three-run home run in the fifth inning. Canyons scored six runs in the inning to boost its lead to 10-0.

R.J. Simone (9-0) pitched eight innings for the Cougars and allowed six hits and one unearned run. He had five strikeouts and no walks.

In other baseball games:

Pierce 7, Santa Monica 4--Josh Smaler and Lou Tapia each had two hits to lead Pierce in a WSC finale at Pierce.

The victory assured Pierce of an automatic berth in the regional playoffs.

The Brahmas scored five times in the fourth to take an 8-2 lead. The rally was sparked by Jason Cohen’s two-run single.

Freshman right-hander Steve Pack (6-3) went the distance and allowed two earned runs and six hits. He struck out seven.

Oxnard 14, Bakersfield 3--Oxnard center fielder Nick Frank, who signed a letter of intent with Long Beach State last week, went four for five with his first home run in the WSC finale.

MEN’S TENNIS

Southern California Regional Championships--Sixth-seeded Al Martinez of Pierce College lost to Fred Hanser of College of the Desert, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, in the quarterfinal round at Southwestern College in Chula Vista. The Pierce doubles team of Philip Leonhardt and Vanja Nadali also was eliminated, losing to Danny Wood and Sven Lundblad of Saddleback, 6-2, 6-3, in doubles.