PLAYOFFS: NOW IT'S FOR REAL SURVIVAL AND TROPHIES ARE THE AIM IN THE POSTSEASON.

Byline: GERRY GITTELSON

High school sports become more interesting this week because the spring playoffs have arrived, and survival becomes the primary goal.

Lose and it's over -- the end of the season and, for most seniors, a sad close to high school athletic careers.

``The difference now is everything is on the line,'' said Kristen Aidem, an outfielder for Valencia High's softball team, seeded No. 1 in Southern Section Div. I. ``We have everything to lose if we don't play our hardest. Being seeded No. 1 really doesn't matter to us, because we don't want the season to end any less than the others teams do.''

It's been a good spring for Santa Clarita schools. Valencia is top-seeded in softball and boys' volleyball and No. 3 in baseball, Hart has a strong presence is baseball, softball, golf and swimming, and Saugus, Canyon and Santa Clarita Christian have hung tough in most sports.

Can good seasons become great ones? That's the issue now that we're in elimination mode.

It's tournament time. It's about success or failure. The feel-good stories have been told. The moral victories have been harvested. It's put up or shut up.

Just the way it should be. Fun and games, but with a price thrown in to increase the drama.

More than any other school, the microscope will be on Valencia, especially its baseball and softball teams, both among Southern California's winningest programs the past few years -- and both without a title.

Admit it, Vikings. Lots and lots of regular-season victories and scrapbooks that bulge in all the right places, but a bit light in the trophy department?

Valencia's baseball team has won a school-record 14 in a row, which has helped it to a high seed but is otherwise meaningless detail now that the playoffs have arrived.

Despite being seeded third, the Vikings have a relatively difficult draw. A victory Thursday over visiting Centennial of Corona could mean a second-round matchup at Agoura, which was ranked No. 1 in the nation earlier this season before injuries to its star pitchers, Jason Stoffel and Robert Stock. Both are expected on the mount in the playoffs.

Agoura defeated Valencia 4-0 in a tournament championship early this season, one of just a few glitches in a near-perfect season for the Vikings, who are led by pitchers Nick Pappas and Scott Fowler, slugger Michael Hur and utility standout Casey Mulligan, who has a school single-season record eight saves.

Valencia's softball team has perhaps the best pitcher in area history, Jordan Taylor, who has a 0.10 ERA and an out-of-sight 395 strikeouts. If the Vikings, finalists last year, don't return to the championship game, the season will be considered a deep disappointment -- especially in light of veteran coach Donna Lee's impending retirement.

Taylor is the marquee name, but Valencia has plenty of supporting talent, including sluggers Jessica Spigner, Torrie Anderson and Nicole Matson.

And so the stories get bigger. The drama increases. The stakes rise. More on the line. More pressure. Bigger and better.

Really, this is what competition is all about. Winning counts in the real world, too, whether we like it or not.

Life is not just about how you play the game. It's a lesson these teenagers might as well learn now, because it's going to be that way forever.

gerry.gittelson(at)dailynews.com

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