BASKETBALL

* Jackie Lott has been removed as women’s basketball coach at Antelope Valley College and reassigned to teaching classes, said Brent Carder, the school’s athletic director.

“It was just based upon my feeling that, after evaluating the program, we needed to have somebody else [as coach],” Carder said.

Lott’s 10-season tenure with the Marauders included several confrontations with players and assistants.

In December, Lott dismissed freshman forward Fran Mitchell from the team during a tournament in Monterey. Lott allegedly used a racial slur in a confrontation with Mitchell, who is African-American.

Carder said the coaching change was not prompted by the incident.

“That’s an entirely different issue,” he said.

Lott, who had a 142-145 record with the Marauders, could not be reached for comment.

BASEBALL

* Pierce (24-12), seeded No. 9, meets No. 8 Cerro Coso (24-14) in a Southern California regional best-of-three series Friday and Saturday at Ridgecrest.

The Brahmas, winners of the Western State Conference Southern Division, and Cerro Coso, the Foothill Conference champion, play Friday at 2 p.m. and Saturday at 11 a.m. A third game, if needed, follows the second game.

Sixteen teams are participating in eight regional series. The winner of each series advances to the double-elimination regional finals May 19-21 at two sites, each with four teams. The winner of each site advances to the four-team state championships on May 27-29 at Fresno.

SOFTBALL

* The Southern California regional last weekend proved dreadful for College of the Canyons, Antelope Valley, Moorpark and Ventura.

No. 8-seeded Ventura (27-18) lost to top-seeded Long Beach City, 10-2, on Sunday in the final of Bracket No. 1 at Long Beach.

Pasadena knocked out No. 5-seeded Canyons (38-7), 4-0, and Moorpark (22-16), 2-1, while No. 6-seeded Antelope Valley (33-11) lost to No. 11 El Camino, 6-5, in other brackets.

Long Beach, Santa Ana, Palomar and Cypress advanced to the eight-team state championships Friday-Sunday at Fresno.