The San Marcos baseball team was awarded a No. 3 seed in the CIF-SS Division 3 playoffs on Monday, when the pairings were announced.
The Royals are one of four local teams to make the CIF Playoffs. The others are Dos Pueblos in Division 2, Santa Barbara in Division 4 and Carpinteria in Division 6.
San Marcos (18-6), which won its third straight Channel League title, will host California High of Whittier (12-15, Del Rio No. 3) in a first-round game on Thursday at 3:15 p.m.
Santa Barbara High and Carpinteria begin their playoff runs on the road Friday.
Santa Barbara (13-13, Channel No. 3) plays at South Pasadena (16-11, Rio Hondo co-champ) in a Division 4 opener.
In Division 6, Carpinteria (12-8, Citrus Coast 2T) makes the long drive to play Desert Christian (15-3-1, Heritage No. 2).
Dos Pueblos (15-13), which won a Channel League play-in game over Ventura to make the playoffs, will travel to Moorpark (14-14, Coast Canyon No. 3) on Tuesday for a Division 2 wild-card game. The winner draws top-seed Aquinas on Friday.