Softball: Vikings get No. 12 seed, travel to No. 5 Palomar for Southern California Regionals

The Long Beach City College softball team has been named the No. 12 seed for this weekend's Southern California Regional Playoffs. Long Beach will travel south to face No. 5 Palomar College in a best-of-three series for the right to advance to the Super Regionals.

Game 1 of the series is set for Saturday (May 6) at 4:30 pm. Game 2 is Sunday (May 7) at 12 pm, with Game 3 if necessary to follow at 2 pm.

Long Beach is back in the playoffs after a one-year absence and has qualified for the postseason in 19 of the past 21 seasons. The Vikings will look to return to the State Championships for the first time since 2009 and win their first state title since 2001.

The Vikings take a 23-15-1 overall record into their series at Palomar. Long Beach finished tied for third place in the South Coast Conference at 12-9.

LBCC is led by sophomore first baseman (Norwalk HS) Michelle Contreras. The left-hander was an All-Southern California selection as well as a first-team All-South Coast Conference pick after leading Long Beach in nearly every offensive category. Contreras hit .421 and totaled 51 hits, 48 runs, 13 doubles, five triples, six homeruns, and 51 RBI. She was also perfect in the field, committing zero errors in 249 chances at first base.

Long Beach beat Palomar 6-3 at home in their lone meeting of the season on February 4. The Vikings pounded out 12 hits, including six for extra bases. Freshman Justine Meddings (Kennedy HS) allowed just two earned runs and two hits in the complete-game win.

Palomar enters the postseason with a 24-10 overall record. The Comets finished as co-champions of the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference at 13-2. Palomar is led by All-State selection and PCAC Player of the Year Danielle LeBeau. First-year head coach Lacey Craft was named conference coach of the year.

The winner of the series will advance to a four-team Super Regional tournament, scheduled for May 13-15. Two Super Regional tournaments will be hosted by the top two remaining seeds with the winners of the Super Regionals advancing to the four-team CCCAA Softball State Championship on May 20-22 at Bakersfield College.