New Baseball State Top 20

Jacob Payne and the rest of the team at Granada of Livermore have had a lot to smile about so far this season. The Matadors now have a chance to be No. 1 in the state for the season. Photo: Dan Badders (courtesy school).

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Note: Check out this week’s Inside the Baseball State Top 20, which more closely examines the difficulties of ranking teams with 10 or more losses until those teams get really deep into the playoffs. This feature is for Gold Club members only. To join our team today, please CLICK HERE.

Here are this week’s rankings (after games of Saturday, May 18; previous ranking in parentheses; Monday games of this week not included):

1. (2) Granada (Livermore) 23-1
The Matadors will enter the postseason as the No. 1 team in the state after defeating Monte Vista of Danville and Livermore last week. Jacob Payne and Ryan Flayler combined for the shutout during their 6-0 win over the Mustangs to open the week.

2. (3) Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood) 24-4
Any chance to get revenge for an earlier loss to Mater Dei of Santa Ana is gone, but the Wolverines may now be the team to beat in the CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs after a 7-1 win over Valencia in their playoff opener.

3. (6) St. Francis (Mountain View) 27-4
Not only did the Lancers pick up a pair of shutout wins over Monta Vista of Cupertino and Valley Christian of San Jose to open postseason play, but they will avoid facing Bellarmine of San Jose, which had their number in their last two meetings, in this week’s CIF Central Coast Section semifinals. The Bells were upset by Palo Alto.

4. (9) Rancho Bernardo (San Diego) 26-4
After splitting a pair of games against Westview of San Diego earlier this season, the Broncos won the series with an 8-1 win before Casey Henderson and Drew Davis each drove in three runs during a 14-0 win over Poway to end the regular season.

5. (4) Oaks Christian (Westlake Village) 25-3-1
Spencer Vogelbach and Phil Bickford combined to pitch a two-hit shutout while Brandon Evans scored the game’s lone run by stealing home as the Lions opened up the CIFSS Division IV playoffs with a 1-0 win over San Marino.

6. (11) Fountain Valley 24-4
Earning a nice jump upward in this week’s rankings, the Barons not only defeated Alemany of Mission Hills 8-0 in their CIFSS Division I playoff opener, but the fourth place team from the Sunset League that they won, Huntington Beach, is the team that ended the season of previous state No. 1 Mater Dei of Santa Ana.

7. (1) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 24-3
We knew the CIFSS Division I playoffs would be a battle and that showed early on as the top team in the state went down by a 2-1 score against Huntington Beach in their first playoff game and just like that the Monarchs’ season has come to an end.

8. (10) Serra (San Mateo) 26-6
The CCS Division I playoffs got underway last week and the Padres’ bats were ready as they scored 11 runs in both of their games to defeat Sequoia of Redwood City 11-0 and Homestead of Cupertino 11-0 to advance to the semifinals where they will face San Benito of Hollister.

9. (13) Clovis North (Fresno) 25-6
Bouncing back from a loss to Buchanan of Clovis in their regular season finale and after a first round bye, the Broncos picked up a 4-0 win over Frontier of Bakersfield in the CIF Central Section Division I quarterfinals.

10. (15) El Toro (Lake Forest) 22-6
Sam Clark’s infield single with the bases loaded in the eighth inning finished off the Chargers’ 2-1 come-from-behind win over Wilson of Long Beach in the first round of the CIFSS Division I playoffs.

11. (17) Buchanan (Clovis) 25-5-1
The last few weeks has seen the Bears fall down the rankings as they started to lose some games, but they earn their way back up and nearly back into the top 10 after a 6-2 win over Liberty of Bakersfield. A Buchanan vs. Clovis North final in the Central Section is possible but both have to win in Wednesday’s semifinals.

12. (18) Redlands East Valley (Redlands) 23-4-1
Sophomore David Barela got the start in the Wildcats’ CIFSS Division II playoff opener and he allowed just one run in 6.1 innings in a 3-1 win over Arcadia.

13. (19) Clovis 24-8
With a 12-2 win over Bakersfield and a 3-2 win over Centennial of Bakersfield, the Cougars will get a chance to get revenge for losing two of three games against Clovis North earlier this season as they will face the Broncos on Wednesday in the CIF Central Section Division I semifinals.

14. (NR) Elk Grove 25-5
Thundering their way to the winners’ side of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs, the Thundering Herd defeated Vintage of Napa 9-6, Woodcreek of Roseville 8-5 and Franklin of Elk Grove 9-6. On Tuesday, they will get a chance to avenge a loss as they play Pleasant Grove of Elk Grove, which prevented them from reaching the Boras Classic finals earlier this season.

15. (7) Turlock 26-2
Extending their winning streak to 26 games with an 11-5 win over Enochs of Modesto, the Bulldogs then lost for the second time this season to a team from Stockton as they fell to St. Mary’s 6-4. As we are finishing the rankings this week, the Bulldogs will be playing Buhach Colony of Atwater so we don’t know if they are still going or if they have ended the season a 26-3.

16. (5) Bellarmine (San Jose) 25-7
In the up-and-down world of top West Catholic Athletic League teams, the Bells are now down after their 10-game win streak was halted in a 6-4 loss to Palo Alto in the CIF Central Coast Section Division I quarterfinals. This time, though, they can’t go back up because the loss ended their season.

17. (NR) Casa Grande (Petaluma) 24-2
Opening the North Bay League tournament with a 5-4 win over Rancho Cotate of Rohnert Park, the Gauchos then defeated Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa for the third time this season as they were victorious 2-1 in the finals.

18. (NR) Campolindo (Moraga) 17-6-1
With a challenging early season schedule that saw the Cougars under .500, they have now won 12 straight after they ended the regular season with 3-2 wins over Dougherty Valley of San Ramon and Dublin.

19. (NR) Whitney (Rocklin) 28-1
Showing why they earned a first round bye in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division III playoffs, the Wildcats defeated Placer of Auburn 10-0 and Colfax 6-0 behind junior Drew Romo, who pitched seven scoreless innings against the Falcons. While playing in Division III will hurt their chances of ending much higher in the rankings, we felt the time was right to move them in this week.

20. (NR) Serra (Gardena) 24-5
Helped by previous No. 8 Bonita of La Verne losing, the Cavaliers enter the top 20 for the first time this season after a 12-7 win over West Covina in the CIFSS Division III playoffs.

Teams That Dropped Out
Previous No. 8 Bonita (La Verne); No. 12 Canyon (Anaheim); No. 14 Carlsbad; No. 16 Lutheran (Orange); No. 20 Davis.

Teams on the Bubble
There are 30 teams listed. They can be seen as a new post on the new CalHiSports.com baseball message board. CLICK HERE.

Mark Tennis contributed to this report.

Paul Muyskens is an assistant editor of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at Paul_Muyskens@yahoo.com. He also tweets from events on our Twitter account: @CalHiSports