Coronado’s removal, Arbor View’s forfeit shakes up 5A baseball region playoffs

The removal of Basic’s baseball team from the Class 5A Southern Region playoffs was just the tip of the iceberg for a series of changes to the playoff bracket.

On Friday, Coronado was removed from the bracket and Arbor View’s 7-2 opening-round win against Desert Oasis was ruled a forfeit, according to the bracket posted on the Nevada Interscholastic Actives Association website.

Coronado athletic director David Stump and Arbor View athletic director Nicole Adarme did not respond when contacted by text message.

The NIAA executive director Timothy Jackson said Friday in a statement regarding the removal of Coronado and Basic from the 5A Southern Region playoffs: “While the situation precipitating these outcomes was not anticipated, the resulting investigations and determinations were made after the first round of the regional tournament had already commenced. “Consistent with established practice and precedent, when teams are no longer eligible to advance in the postseason, they are removed from the bracket, and their opponents advance.”

The statement, released following a Friday court hearing where an attorney representing the Basic baseball team requested a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, added: “The NIAA does not halt, reseed, or alter the participants in the event once competition has begun. In this case, that occurred on Wednesday. Unfortunately, these vacated positions appear on the same side of the bracket; the tournament will continue to advance.

“This action aligns with longstanding procedures and ensures the integrity and continuity of the tournament structure.The NIAA does not disclose the nature of the incident, the identities of individual students, or the specifics of violations involving member schools .”

Coronado, listed as the Mountain League’s No. 4 seed, lost in the opening round to Palo Verde 2-0. That dropped Coronado to the loser bracket. Both spots that had Coronado’s name on the bracket Thursday were replaced with “(Vacant)” on Friday.

The Cougars were supposed to play the loser of Faith Lutheran-Basic, but after Basic was taken out of the playoffs, the Cougars were advanced to a Saturday elimination game before they were taken out of the bracket.

Arbor View had a first-round bye and it’s win over Desert Oasis is noted as a forfeit. That moves Desert Oasis in the winners bracket to play at Bishop Gorman at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Arbor View falls to the losers bracket and will host Liberty at 11 a.m. Saturday in an elimination game. Desert Oasis was scheduled to play Liberty Friday afternoon, but the game was canceled as a result of Arbor View’s forfeit.

Because Arbor View’s elimination game has been pushed to Saturday, the winner of the Arbor View-Liberty game will play in a game Monday against the winner of Legacy-Durango (which was played Friday afternoon) in another elimination game in the loser bracket, which was originally scheduled for Saturday.