Softball State Rankings By Divisions

Paige Von Sprecken and her team at Yorba Linda have lost three times to Pacifica but have key wins over several other top teams this season. Photo courtesy school.

It could be the last quiet week with very few changes other than Santa Barbara County schools Righetti and Cabrillo entering for separate divisions. Remaining No. 1 are Pacifica of Garden Grove, Mission Viejo, Bishop Amat, Francis Parker and Redwood Christian.

For game reports, please go to our twitter page @CalHiSports and for other updates please visit our Facebook page. To subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter, click here. To browse through our various photo galleries, click here. To check out our YouTube channel, click here.

Note: For a free look at this week’s Inside the Softball State Top 20, which normally will be content for Gold Club members, including more analysis, more player recognition, more team writeups and a closer look at the toughest teams to rank, CLICK HERE.

There were only two new teams in this week’s Cal-Hi Sports divisional state softball rankings and both of those squads are from the Central Coast region of the CIF Southern Section.

In Division III, Righetti of Santa Maria, which during the 1980s was one of the top programs in California regardless of school size, moved into the top 10. In Division IV, Cabrillo of Lompoc did the same.

Righetti’s history includes a listing in the state record book for having 27 shutouts in 1997 and 25 shutouts in 1989. The Warriors also once went 76-4 overall from 1980 to 1982 and are listed as the 1980 and 1981 State Team of the Year.

The two teams actually played each other in each one’s first game with Righetti winning 15-0. Cabrillo’s difficulty of schedule plus going 11-1 in the Los Padres League, though, was enough for the rankings boost. The Conquistadors also have been seeded second in the CIF Southern Section Division V playoffs behind Calvary Chapel of Downey.

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 in its 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) Pacifica (Garden Grove) 24-5
2. (2) Yorba Linda 21-3
3. (3) Great Oak (Temecula) 17-3
4. (4) Amador Valley (Pleasanton) 21-2
5. (5) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 23-4
6. (6) Esperanza (Anaheim) 24-3
7. (7) Vintage (Napa) 27-0
8. (8) James Logan (Union City) 22-1
9. (10) El Diamante (Visalia) 28-1-1
10. (9) Santiago (Corona) 25-5
11. (13) Marina (Huntington Beach) 24-3
12. (12) California (San Ramon) 18-4
13. (NR) M.L. King (Riverside) 23-6
14. (14) San Benito (Hollister) 21-3
15. (11) Norco 23-7
Dropped Out: None.
Bubble Teams: See list on new softball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: In the overall state top 20, Norco was the odd team out and had to drop due to Riverside King winning the title in the Big VIII League. For the Division I state rankings, however, there wasn’t another team that had to go in or which had a strong enough resume. Therefore, Norco stayed in at No. 15.

DIVISION II
1. (1) Mission Viejo 25-1
2. (2) Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 27-0
3. (3) Moorpark 23-3
4. (4) Chino 22-2
5. (6) Lakewood 21-6
6. (5) Bonita Vista (Chula Vista) 20-4-1
7. (7) Petaluma 21-1
8. (8) Rocklin 23-3
9. (9) Alhambra (Martinez) 20-2-1
10. (10) Benicia 23-3
Dropped Out: None.
Bubble Teams: See list on new softball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: The race for No. 1 in this division also greatly impacts the final No. 1 overall ranking for the state. If Mission Viejo wins out and takes the CIF Southern Section Division II title, the Diablos also will more than likely be State Team of the Year. If Mission Viejo loses, Archbishop Mitty could then be poised to take over at the top of both lists. While the Monarchs don’t have the signature wins like some of their other great recent teams – including the 32-0 ESPN FAB 50 national champs from 2009 led by Keilani Ricketts – they have a history over the past 10 years that is hard to beat. We know that Mitty could be right up there with the best of SoCal because we’ve seen its teams play at that level many times and we know how talented some of the current players are.

DIVISION III
1. (1) Bishop Amat (La Puente) 21-4
2. (2) Highland (Palmdale) 22-1
3. (3) Sierra (Manteca) 21-2
4. (4) Santana (Santee) 22-5
5. (5) Burbank 24-2
6. (6) California (Whittier) 24-4
7. (8) Dos Pueblos (Goleta) 21-3-1
8. (9) Soquel 22-4
9. (10) Segerstrom (Santa Ana) 20-5
10. (NR) Righetti (Santa Maria) 22-7
Dropped Out: Previous No. 7 La Quinta.
Bubble Teams: See list on new softball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: Righetti’s insertion into the No. 10 position also was possible due to previous No. 7 La Quinta dropping a game to Palm Desert. In the CIF Southern Section Division III playoff pairings, Highland of Palmdale was No. 1 with Burbank No. 2 and Bishop Amat No. 3. We have Bishop Amat higher due to owning a win over D1 power Corona Santiago plus other reasons and don’t see a need to switch the rankings to match the seedings. We’d rather just sit back and let the teams duke it out.

DIVISION IV
1. (1) Francis Parker (San Diego) 19-2
2. (2) Wheatland 30-2-1
3. (3) Calvary Chapel (Downey) 19-4
4. (4) Santa Catalina (Monterey) 24-2
5. (5) Aquinas (San Bernardino) 21-2
6. (6) Salesian (Richmond) 18-1
7. (7) Liberty (Madera Ranchos) 22-6
8. (8) Hughson 20-4-1
9. (9) La Jolla Country Day (La Jolla) 21-3
10. (NR) Cabrillo (Lompoc) 17-9
Dropped Out: Previous No. 10 Marysville.
Bubble Teams: See list on new softball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: No. 2 Wheatland won its CIF Northern Section Division III playoff game on Tuesday over Yreka and probably (barring an upset on Thursday) will play for its section title on Saturday. Other than Francis Parker and perhaps whichever team wins the CIF Southern Section Division V title, a Wheatland win on Saturday figures to eliminate a bunch of teams from any hopes of finishing on top of the state in this division. No. 3 Calvary Chapel is the No. 2 seed in the CIFSS Division V playoffs. The top seed, Citrus Valley of Redlands, is just way too big of a school to be considered Division IV for our state rankings and isn’t quite in the top 10 for Division III.

DIVISION V
1. (1) Redwood Christian (San Lorenzo) 21-0
2. (2) Pomona Catholic (Pomona) 18-9
3. (3) Woodland Christian 16-1
4. (4) Rosamond 23-3
5. (5) Sierra Pacific (Hanford) 22-3
6. (6) Port of Los Angeles (San Pedro) 25-8
7. (7) Kern Valley (Lake Isabella) 24-3-1
8. (8) East Nicolaus 19-5
9. (9) Bellarmine-Jefferson (Burbank) 18-10
10. (10) Waterford 17-5-1
Dropped Out: None.
Bubble Teams: See list on new softball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: There were no changes for this division this week and it remains a classic case of the team with a perfect record (Redwood Christian) compared to the team with a much better strength of schedule (Pomona Catholic). Redwood Christian improved to 21-0 on Tuesday with a victory against Athenian of Danville.

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