Baseball State Rankings By Divisions

Steven Farinaro from D5 state-ranked Head-Royce of Oakland is one of the top pitchers in Northern California regardless of school size. Photo courtesy Student Sports.

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This week’s addition of nine new teams into the various Cal-Hi Sports divisional state rankings in baseball is a season-high, but is likely just the beginning.

Often in high school baseball, ranked teams fall by the wayside quickly in single-elimination playoffs when all it takes is for one hot pitcher to send a team packing for the summer.

One team hoping that doesn’t happen is Redlands East Valley of Redlands, which moved up to No. 1 this week in Division II. The Wildcats of head coach James Cordes also are the top seed in the CIF Southern Section Division II playoffs.

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 14; previous rank in parentheses; could be a few scores from early this week still unaccounted for):

DIVISION I
1. (1) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 24-2
2. (2) Granada (Livermore) 21-1
3. (5) Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood) 23-4
4. (9) Bellarmine (San Jose) 24-6
5. (4) St. Francis (Mountain View) 25-4
6. (6) Turlock 25-1
7. (10) Rancho Bernardo (San Diego) 25-4
8. (7) Serra (San Mateo) 24-6
9. (3) Fountain Valley 23-4
10. (12) Canyon (Anaheim) 22-5
11. (8) Clovis North (Fresno) 24-6
12. (11) Carlsbad 23-5
13. (14) El Toro (Lake Forest) 21-6
14. (13) Lutheran (Orange) 19-7
15. (NR) Buchanan (Clovis) 25-5-1
Dropped Out: Previous No. 15 Grossmont (La Mesa).
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: Fountain Valley’s two losses to Sunset League rival Marina of Huntington Beach sent the Barons spinning down six slots this week, but they’re in the same loaded CIFSS bracket as Mater Dei, Harvard-Westlake and others so if they do well in that bracket those losses won’t mean much. Turlock played its first game in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D1 playoffs on Wednesday against Enochs of Modesto. Enochs advanced with a 6-2 win on Monday over Lincoln of Stockton, which handed Turlock its only loss in the first game of the season.

DIVISION II
1. (3) Redlands East Valley (Redlands) 22-4-1
2. (1) Casa Grande (Petaluma) 22-2
3. (2) Campolindo (Moraga) 15-6-1
4. (4) Benicia 24-3
5. (8) Clayton Valley (Concord) 19-4
6. (10) Temecula Valley (Temecula) 19-5
7. (NR) Los Osos (Rancho Cucamonga) 20-5
8. (7) College Park (Pleasant Hill) 17-5-1
9. (NR) Madison (San Diego) 21-7
10. (NR) Cypress 21-8
Dropped Out: Previous No. 5 South Hils (Covina); No. 6 Valencia (Placentia); No. 9 Foothill (Palo Cedro).
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: Previous No. 1 Casa Grande lost a league game to Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa, a team the Gauchos defeated earlier in the season. They also were kept in front of Campolindo due to a head-to-head win, but Campo may get to avenge that loss in the upcoming CIF North Coast Section D2 playoffs. Clayton Valley, meanwhile, went back in front of league rival College Park this week due to a win over the Falcons after losing early last week in the first game of a two-game series. Both of those teams could run into Campolindo or Casa Grande in the NCS playoffs as well.

DIVISION III
1. (1) Oaks Christian (Westlake Village) 24-3-1
2. (2) Bonita (La Verne) 25-3-1
3. (3) Whitney (Rocklin) 26-1
4. (4) Serra (Gardena) 23-5
5. (6) Kaiser (Fontana) 23-3
6. (7) Laguna Beach 26-2
7. (8) Vista del Lago (Folsom) 23-4
8. (NR) Gahr (Cerritos) 20-5
9. (5) San Dieguito (Encinitas) 23-6
10. (NR) Quartz Hill 21-5
Dropped Out: Previous No. 9 Acalanes (Lafayette); No. 10 Diamond Bar.
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: This division would have had few changes this week except that on Tuesday previous No. 5 San Dieguito lost a game to Escondido. That allowed Kaiser, Laguna Beach and Vista del Lago all to move up one position. New No. 8 Gahr has been highly ranked around Southern California all season and we had the flexibility to jump the team up this week. The team’s top player, shortstop Kevin Franklin, was a standout during last summer’s Area Code Games.

DIVISION IV
1. (1) Pacific Grove 27-0
2. (3) La Jolla Country Day (La Jolla) 22-5
3. (5) Paraclete (Lancaster) 21-3
4. (2) Kerman 24-4
5. (6) Capital Christian (Sacramento) 21-5-1
6. (7) Central Catholic (Modesto) 21-5
7. (8) Palma (Salinas) 20-6
8. (4) Oak Hills (Hesperia) 21-7
9. (9) Ontario Christian 21-5
10. (10) St. Francis CCC (Watsonville) 20-7
Dropped Out: None.
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: If Pacific Grove were to win its second straight CIF Central Coast Section Division III title, the Breakers would finish 31-0 and would post the second-best perfect season in state history. Despite its 27-0 mark, there are still many skeptical about the team’s strength. In the CCS seedings for that bracket, Palma of Salinas is higher at No. 1 with Pacific Grove at No. 2. Yes, we know Palma has played a stronger schedule, but we don’t care because the two teams could meet in the final. If Pacific Grove were to lose, La Jolla Country Day could be building the strongest case to take over at the top. The Torreys won last week against Cathedral Catholic of San Diego, which was the preseason No. 1 team in the nation but has been reeling from player suspensions.

DIVISION V
1. (1) Desert Christian Academy (Bermuda Dunes) 24-2
2. (4) Bradshaw Christian (Sacramento) 21-6
3. (7) Caruthers 22-3-1
4. (6) Mariposa County (Mariposa) 20-2
5. (2) Malibu 22-4
6. (3) Head-Royce (Oakland) 18-4
7. (NR) Windward (Los Angeles) 17-7
8. (NR) Maxwell 21-6
9. (8) Fall River (McArthur) 25-1
10. (NR) High Tech (San Diego) 21-4
Dropped Out: Previous No. 5 Webb (Claremont); No. 9 St. Bernard (Eureka); No. 10 Crean Lutheran (Irvine).
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: It was easy to move up Bradshaw Christian into the No. 2 position after previous No. 2 Malibu and No. 3 Head-Royce both lost twice since the last rankings. Having a recent win over D1 power Elk Grove certainly made it easier to shift the Pride higher, too. Another team benefitting from those two teams losing twice was Caruthers. The Blue Raiders got a big win last week over D4 bubble team Fowler.

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