Coastal Academy awarded SoCal Regional title following brawl, forfeit on other side of the bracket

Coastal Academy is a Southern California Regional baseball champion … just not the way the Stingrays envisioned.

The Oceanside school advanced to the Division 5 regional final with wins over Los Angeles Fremont and Montebello Schurr and was set to play the winner of Thursday’s semifinal between No. 1-seeded Tujunga Verdugo Hills and Los Angeles Roosevelt for the title.

However, there was a benches-clearing brawl in the Verdugo Hills-Roosevelt game, and the CIF’s state office declared a double forfeit.

“Neither team will advance,” the CIF said, “and Coastal Academy is declared the 2026 CIF SoCal Division 5 baseball champion.”

“Not the way we were hoping the year would end, but we’ll take it,” said Glen Henton, the baseball coach and athletic director at Coastal Academy. “We were looking forward to playing Saturday, so this is bittersweet.”

Henton said he was following the Roosevelt-Verdugo Hills game on the GameChanger app when he saw the game was delayed.

Top-seeded Verdugo Hills was leading 5-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning when a Verdugo Hills batter hit a comebacker to the Roosevelt pitcher.

Video shows the Roosevelt pitcher trapping a baserunner off third base. The runner is forced back to third base, where he collides with the third baseman, who falls to the ground. A Roosevelt player then shoves the runner, prompting both benches to clear.

By CIF rules, players leaving the bench area are automatically ejected from the game and suspended for a minimum of one game immediately after. Neither Roosevelt nor Verdugo Hills had enough players to finish the semifinal game - or enough to play Saturday.

“There were multiple phone calls with the state,” Henton said. “We needed to know because if Verdugo Hills won, we needed to rent a bus to get there. …

“We were ready to travel, looking forward to playing. But 100%, we’ll take this.”

The Stingrays finish the season 25-7 and winners of nine straight games. They cruised through the San Diego Section playoffs, trouncing Hoover 15-1, Chula Vista Learning Community 21-1 and Hoover again, 13-3, before beating Canyon Hills 4-3 in the Division 5 title game USD’s Fowler Park.

Coastal Academy then beat Los Angeles Fremont 5-4 and Montebello Schurr 5-2 in the regionals.

“We hit all our goals: won league, won the San Diego Section and are SoCal Champions - by default, but we won it,” Henton said. “You never know when you play, but we felt good about our chances Saturday.

“We return seven of our nine starters, so we feel good about next season.”

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This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 11:41 AM.