No. 10 Canyons Travels to No. 7 Chaffey in First Round Playoff Series

The No. 10 seed College of the Canyons baseball team will travel to face No. 7 Chaffey College for a three-game series in the first round of the 2016 California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) Southern California Regional Playoffs. 

The series begins at 2 p.m. Friday, May 6, at Lowder Field in Rancho Cucamonga.

Game two will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday. If necessary, a third and final game will be played at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

Canyons (28-8, 15-6) enters the postseason after having finished third in the highly competitive Western State Conference (WSC), South Division. The Cougars finished two games behind conference champion Glendale College, and one game back of second place Bakersfield College. 

COC returns to the postseason after a one-year hiatus in 2015. Prior to last season, head coach Chris Cota's teams had qualified for the playoffs in four straight seasons. 

The Cougars ended the regular season with the state-wide lead in nine offensive categories: hits (477), runs (337), batting average (.353), extra base hits (166), total bases (780), home runs (63), RBIs (305), on base percentage (.427) and slugging percentage (.577).

COC freshman outfielder Chad Bible leads the state in both home run (15) and RBIs (59). Meanwhile, freshman catcher Anthony Lepre ranks second in the state with 13 home runs. Sophomore Colton Burns is batting .421 on the season, to rank third in the CCCAA.

Chaffey College (27-9, 21-3) enters the postseason as champions of the Foothill Conference, after winning 13 of its final 15 games down the stretch. The Panthers have also displayed a knack for scoring runs (307), trailing only COC in that category.

The winner of the series will move on to the second round of the 2016 CCCAA SoCal Regional Playoffs.

A full Southern California region postseason bracket is available here.