Ineligible Player Jeopardizes Mission Viejo

The Mission Viejo High School baseball team’s playoff hopes were severely hurt this week when the Diablos were forced to forfeit an April 9 victory over Irvine for using an ineligible player.

Mission Viejo Principal Robert Metz said an assistant principal inadvertently had declared Diablo third baseman Matt Balsz academically eligible for the game when, according to Saddleback Unified School District rules, he was ineligible.

District rules state that a player becomes eligible or ineligible on the day grades are issued. Balsz did not meet the district’s C-average requirement during the second quarter--making him ineligible for the play in the third quarter, which ended in early April--but he became eligible for the fourth quarter.

The Irvine game was played at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but third-quarter grades had not been issued by April 9. Therefore, Balsz, who hit a home run in Mission Viejo’s 11-6 win, was declared ineligible by the district.

“It was a mistake and something we regret, but the right thing to do was to declare the game a forfeiture,” Metz said. “We really feel bad about it, but there’s not much we can do.”

Combined with Friday’s 2-1 loss to Dana Hills, Mission Viejo (4-7) dropped to fifth place in league, three games behind Dana Hills and Irvine (both 7-4). The Diablos, who have reached the Southern Section playoffs nine times in the last 10 years, close the season with two games against first-place Capistrano Valley and two against fourth-place El Toro.