Palihi Baseball Seeded No. 11 in City Playoffs

The City Section seeding committee unveiled its playoff brackets Wednesday and Palisades High is 11th out of 20 teams in Division I, right where Coach Mike Voelkel had guessed the Dolphins would be.

"When I did my own projections I figured we would go in the 9-11 range, but then when you factor in head-to-head matchups that put us about No. 11," he said. "So I can't say I'm shocked at all where we ended up."

Players have already dubbed the postseason the "Revenge Tour" because, provided seedings hold, Palisades would have to knock off three teams it has already lost to this season in order to reach the championship game at Dodger Stadium.

The first tour stop is San Fernando, where the Dolphins lost 7-2 in the Southern California Invitational Tournament in their second game of the season March 5. The first-round game is scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday at San Fernando High.

Provided Palisades upsets the sixth-seeded Tigers it would likely face third-seeded Granada Hills Kennedy in the quarterfinals. The Cougars beat Palisades 4-2 at the San Diego Lions Tournament in Carlsbad on April 18. San Fernando (24-6) and Kennedy (23-8) tied for the Valley Mission League title.

Looming as a potential semifinal opponent for the Dolphins is second-seeded El Camino Real, the West Valley League runner-up. The defending City champion Conquistadores (16-14) beat Palisades 4-2 in a nonleague game March 30 at George Robert Field, but should both teams advance that far the rematch would be in Woodland Hills.

"It's three teams we've already played and we've seen everyone's ace [pitcher], so there's really no surprises," Voelkel said. "We were right there in all three of those games and it's going to come down to execution."

Senior right-hander Dylan Jeffers will take the mound against San Fernando and will likely face the Tigers' lefty ace David Lira, who stymied Dolphins batters in the teams' regular season meeting.

"Dylan has been our horse, he's pitched the best down the stretch and he's earned the start," Voelkel said. "Lira is one of the best in the City, he got ahead of us early and stayed ahead of us. What I remember about San Fernando is that they played with great energy, they were grinders and a real scrappy team. Let's see how much we've improved since then."

Should Palisades advance, senior Nick Poulos and sophomore Harrison Simon are No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, in the pitching rotation.

The last time the Dolphins (16-12) failed to win the the Western League title was former coach Russ Howard's final season in 2003 and all Palisades did that year was win the Invitational Division title at Dodger Stadium.

Palisades' path back to Chavez Ravine is full of roadblocks, but Voelkel's team can adopt a "nothing to lose, everything to gain" approach. Banning has knocked the Dolphins out of the playoffs two years in a row but the Pilots are seeded No. 4 and would not face Palisades until the finals.

West Valley League champion Chatsworth is seeded No. 1 for the eighth time in the last nine seasons. Westchester, the Western League runner-up to Palisades, is No. 16 and hosts No. 17 LA Roosevelt in a wild-card game Friday. The winner travels to the nine-time champion Chancellors for the first round.

All six West Valley League teams made the Division I playoffs.

"The one factor I wasn't sure about was how much being a league champion would weigh into the equation," Voelkel said. "They seemed to weigh head-to-head games more, which is fine. Granada Hills beat us the first game of the season so you give them credit there, we didn't play Taft and we beat Birmingham. I had ECR going third or fourth, but there wasn't an outright winner in the Marine League so that might be the reason they got seeded No. 2."

Division I quarterfinal games are May 26 at 3 p.m.; semifinals are June 1 at 3 and 6 p.m. at USC's Dedeaux Field; and the championship game is at 2 p.m. on June 4 at Dodger Stadium.

Two other Western League teams made the City playoffs. Fifth-place University is the No. 8 seed in Division II and hosts ninth-seeded North Hollywood in the first round Tuesday.

Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies, winless in Western League play, is seeded No. 3 in Division III and hosts No. 6 Animo Venice in the first round of the eight-team bracket Friday.

"I would've liked to have seen maybe one more team from our league make it, like Hamilton because they had a chance to win it going into the last two games with us," Voelkel said. "A team to watch out for could be Westchester. I know they are seeded No. 16 but they have some arms."

After two weeks off, let the Dolphins' self-proclaimed "Redemption Tour" begin.