Baseball State Rankings By Divisions

Clayton Valley players celebrate after winning game last weekend at home of the Oakland Athletics. Both Clayton Valley and league rival College Park are in this week’s Division II state rankings. Photo by David Chin.

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With the final week of the regular season wrapping up for some teams in the state, all of the various state rankings begin to take on more significance. In the playoffs, remember, especially in those CIF sections with no double-elimination, it’s one loss and any hopes of a team finishing with a mythical Cal-Hi Sports state championship are done.

As noted in last week’s divisional rankings, unbeaten Granada of Livermore had surpassed St. Francis of Mountain View for No. 1 in Northern California. Since then and not including any results from Wednesday of this week, Granada had added one more win and St. Francis got beat again. Harvard-Westlake of North Hollywood also suffered a loss so in this week’s Division I state poll Granada has moved up to No. 2.

Two other teams climbing up into the important No. 2 positions this week are Campolindo of Moraga in Division II and Malibu in Division V.

Please note that the Cal-Hi Sports five-divisions will not match the same divisions in some CIF sections because some of those sections have more than five divisions for the playoffs. In the CIF Southern Section, for example, Division I is Division I and Division II is Division II for our state rankings. The CIFSS Division III and Division IV teams, however, are combined for our format. This means that Division V for the CIFSS is the same as Division IV for us and that Division VI is the same as Division V.

Here are this week’s rankings (after games of Tuesday, May 7; previous rank in parentheses; could be a few scores from early this week still unaccounted for):

DIVISION I
1. (1) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 23-2
2. (3) Granada (Livermore) 20-0
3. (5) Fountain Valley 23-2
4. (4) St. Francis (Mountain View) 25-3
5. (2) Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood) 21-4
6. (8) Turlock 24-1
7. (9) Serra (San Mateo) 23-5
8. (10) Clovis North (Fresno) 24-5
9. (11) Bellarmine (San Jose) 22-6
10. (6) Rancho Bernardo (San Diego) 22-4
11. (12) Carlsbad 22-4
12. (14) Canyon (Anaheim) 20-5
13. (NR) Lutheran (Orange) 18-7
14. (NR) El Toro (Lake Forest) 18-6
15. (NR) Grossmont (La Mesa) 20-6
Dropped Out: Previous No. 7 Buchanan (Clovis); No. 13 Elk Grove); No. 15 Lincoln (Stockton).
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: In the two most significant games played early this week involving top teams, No. 8 Clovis North blanked previous No. 7 Buchanan 4-0 while previous No. 13 Elk Grove was topped 3-2 by bubble team Davis. Jack Labosky tossed a four-hitter for Clovis North and improved to 9-0. It also was the third loss in four games for Buchanan, which is why the Bears had to drop so far since last week. Next week’s rankings (both top 20 overall and divisional) will be shaped greatly by this week’s West Catholic Athletic League playoffs. The semifinals will match St. Francis vs. Bellarmine and Serra vs. Valley Christian of San Jose.

DIVISION II
1. (1) Casa Grande (Petaluma) 21-1
2. (3) Campolindo (Moraga) 14-6-1
3. (4) Redlands East Valley (Redlands) 20-4-1
4. (5) Benicia 24-3
5. (6) South Hills (Covina) 19-5
6. (8) Valencia (Placentia) 21-5
7. (NR) College Park (Pleasant Hill) 15-4-1
8. (7) Clayton Valley (Concord) 17-4
9. (10) Foothill (Palo Cedro) 27-4
10. (NR) Temecula Valley (Temecula) 17-5
Dropped Out: Previous No. 2 Cypress; No. 9 San Clemente.
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: Previous No. 2 Cypress had to drop all the way out of this week’s rankings after losing to Pacifica of Garden Grove to end last week and then losing again to start this week to Valencia of Placentia. Other than Campolindo getting back up to No. 2, another major mover out of the CIF North Coast Section is College Park. The Falcons were helped by Clayton Valley beating Buchanan in last Saturday’s Dave Stewart/Oakland A’s Showdown and then they beat Clayton Valley 1-0 on Tuesday. Joe DeMers, a sophomore who also was a key starter when College Park surged to the CIF Division II state final in basketball, shut down Clayton Valley on a three-hitter.

DIVISION III
1. (1) Oaks Christian (Westlake Village) 23-3-1
2. (2) Bonita (La Verne) 23-3-1
3. (3) Whitney (Rocklin) 26-1
4. (4) Serra (Gardena) 21-5
5. (5) San Dieguito (Encinitas) 22-5
6. (6) Kaiser (Fontana) 22-3
7. (7) Laguna Beach 24-2
8. (8) Vista del Lago (Folsom) 23-4
9. (9) Acalanes (Lafayette) 16-6
10. (10) Diamond Bar 19-4
Dropped Out: None.
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: A big game played on Wednesday (and obviously not part of this week’s rankings) was No. 2 Bonita of La Verne facing No. 10 Diamond Bar. Both the Bearcats and Brahmas won their games last week and stayed the same in this week’s rankings. Every other top 10 team from this division won its games, too. No. 4 Serra’s top player, first baseman Dominic Smith, has been projected to be taken at No. 13 in the first round of next month’s MLB amateur free agent draft by Scout.com.

DIVISION IV
1. (1) Pacific Grove 26-0
2. (2) Kerman 24-3
3. (3) La Jolla Country Day (La Jolla) 18-5
4. (4) Oak Hills (Hesperia) 21-6
5. (5) Paraclete (Lancaster) 20-3
6. (6) Capital Christian (Sacramento) 21-5-1
7. (7) Central Catholic (Modesto) 21-5-1
8. (8) Palma (Salinas) 19-6
9. (9) Ontario Christian 20-5
10. (10) St. Francis CCC (Watsonville) 20-7
Dropped Out: None.
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: Last week’s list actually only had nine teams so we had to go back and re-rank the list. St. Francis of Watsonville would have been No. 10 and stays there again this week. Top-ranked Pacific Grove, meanwhile, surged to a 14-0 win on Tuesday over King City. The Breakers improved to 26-0 and also posted their third straight shutout.

DIVISION V
1. (1) Desert Christian Academy (Bermuda Dunes) 22-2
2. (5) Malibu 22-3
3. (2) Head-Royce (Oakland) 18-2
4. (3) Bradshaw Christian (Sacramento) 20-6
5. (6) Webb (Claremont) 18-2
6. (7) Mariposa County (Mariposa) 19-2
7. (4) Caruthers 21-3-1
8. (8) Fall River (McArthur) 23-1
9. (9) St. Bernard (Eureka) 15-4
10. (10) Crean Lutheran (Irvine) 17-6
Dropped Out: None.
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: With Head-Royce dropping a game to Redwood Christian of San Lorenzo plus Bradshaw Christian losing to Capital Christian and Caruthers falling to Minarets of O’Neals, Malibu was given a boost to No. 2 in this week’s rankings. And since the Sharks are in the same CIFSS playoff division as No. 1 Desert Christian Academy, this move also gives them a chance to finish the season on top in the division. Two of Malibu’s losses are to big-school Santa Monica. The team also has strong wins over Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth and High Tech of San Diego. Junior Chase Lambert has been leading the team at the plate with a .488 average and also has been the closer on the mound. He started this week with eight saves and a 0.79 ERA.

Paul Muyskens contributed to this report.

Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @CalHiSports