It’s Small World for No. 1 Teams

Small-school softball teams from the region reign supreme in the Southern Section playoffs, which begin this week.

Chaminade, Village Christian and Oaks Christian highs earned No. 1 seedings in Divisions IV-VI.

First-round games are Friday at 3:15 p.m.

Chaminade (16-8-1), which lost to Calabasas in the Division IV final last season, will face the winner of Wednesday’s wild-card game between Lompoc Cabrillo and Nordhoff.

Village Christian (19-4), the Alpha League’s No. 1 entry, will host Mammoth.

Oaks Christian (22-4-2), in its first season, will host La Verne Lutheran.

Area teams will play second fiddle in five of six divisions.

No. 2 seedings went to Valencia (23-4) in Division I, Crescenta Valley (25-1) in II, La Canada (22-2-1) in IV, Paraclete (18-4) in V and Faith Baptist (16-10) in VI.

Oaks Christian’s top seeding in Division VI is a bit humorous, considering the Eagles qualified for the playoffs without a victory to spare.

Oaks Christian, a freelance team which has been the division’s top-ranked team for more than a month, needed to win 80% of its games to receive an automatic berth. Teams .500 or better have to petition for an at-large bid.

The Eagles clinched a berth in their final game, a 4-0 victory over Ventura on Thursday.

Oaks Christian is certainly worthy of respect.

Ace Ashlee Freeman (22-3), a division player-of-the-year candidate, has a region-leading 349 strikeouts in 184 innings and boasts an 0.19 earned-run average. The sophomore is batting a team-high .542 with 10 doubles, six home runs and 31 runs batted in.

Thirty-seven teams from the region received a Southern Section playoff berth.

Eight of nine regional teams competing in Division II will meet in first-round games.

Rio Mesa (19-6) hosts Saugus (15-11), Hart (23-5) hosts Buena (16-9), Thousand Oaks (21-5) hosts Hueneme (17-9-1) and Crescenta Valley hosts Palmdale (12-13-1).

El Camino Real (25-6) will play defending champion San Pedro in a City Championship semifinal today at South Gate Park.

The Conquistadores have reached the final in four of the last five seasons.

Birmingham (20-10) faces Fremont in an Invitational semifinal.