The song “Who Let the Dogs Out?” became a cultural icon when it was released in 2000. But a group of Point Loma High Pointer Dogs were devastated last week when told they didn\u2019t qualify for CIF playoffs, ending their season prematurely.
\nPoint Loma High players, coaches and parents, including 10 graduating seniors, are feeling the sting of having the playoff door slammed in their face after they felt they earned a berth on the field. Their 12-13-1 overall record and 7-5 Western League second-place finish left them ranked as the 24th-best county prep team (and sixth-best in Div. II) in the widely used MaxPreps standings.
\nBeing 24th, with 52 teams earning playoff spots, it would seem to make PLHS\u2019 inclusion would be automatic. But not to the CIF selection committee.
\nTwelve teams were selected for Div. II playoffs, but PLHS athletic director John Murphy had to gather his baseball pack to tell them their playoffs opportunity wasn\u2019t happening.
\nWhile their season began with more losses than wins, the Pointers had made significant strides during the league season, finishing with a six-game winning streak, behind only champion La Jolla and ahead of Madison, Mission Bay and University City.
\nLa Jolla, as league champion, was guaranteed a spot (No. 4 in Div. II). But third-place Madison also received a berth (No. 12 in Div. I), while PLHS was snubbed.
\nYet, the Pointers\u2019 late win streak included two wins over Madison (6-5 and 4-0).
\nA closer look at the results of the Pointers\u2019 tough pre-season schedule offers further evidence of the team\u2019s quality.\u00a0
\nThe Pointers lost their season-opener to 8th-ranked Helix (4-2), then played D-I 8th-seed Montgomery to a 4-4 tie, suspended after 12 innings.
\nNext, it was 9th-ranked Vista, now an Open Div. No. 6 seed, which edged the Dogs 1-0.
\nThen, Div. I No. 10 seed Steele Canyon hung a 5-2 loss on the Pointers.
\nClose games against quality opponents.
\nNext came victories against No. 17-ranked Eastlake, a D-II playoff seed, and Mira Mesa, which became a No. 8 Open Division seed.
\nThe Dogs blew out Central (El Centro) 12-2, and the Spartans went on to be the No. 1 seed in Div. IV.
\nCathedral Catholic, ranked No. 2 in the county and featuring the nation\u2019s likely first- round professional baseball draft pick, pinned a 5-1 loss on the Pointers.
\nSt. Augustine, which earned a No. 1 seed in Div. I, spanked the Dogs in a 6-1 City Conference tournament game.
\nAnd so it goes … the Pointers playing game after game against many of the county\u2019s best teams, winning a few and losing more, often by just a few runs.
\nApparently, the CIF Selection Committee didn\u2019t take as close a look at the Pointers\u2019 performance.
\nAt season\u2019s end, MaxPreps pegged the Pointers as the 24th-best prep baseball team in San Diego and the 6th-best team in Div. II.
\nAnother league champion (16th-ranked Hilltop: 11-19 overall) received an automatic Div. II berth.
\nThe CIF Selection Committee admitted 52 total teams to the playoffs, including 12 in PLHS\u2019 Div. II.
\nThe Pointers weren\u2019t one of them … and that stinks.
\nSomeone owes these kids an apology, but I would advise them not to hold their breath awaiting one. \u2014 Scott Hopkins is a sportswriter for the San Diego Community Newspaper Group.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The song “Who Let the Dogs Out?” became a cultural icon when it was released in 2000. But a group of Point Loma High Pointer Dogs were devastated last week when told they didn\u2019t qualify for CIF playoffs, ending their season prematurely. Point Loma High players, coaches and parents, including 10 graduating seniors, are feeling […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":265803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"COMMENTARY: Dubious CIF ruling sinks canines into Pointers\u2019 baseball playoff hopes","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561,11553],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}