Amador Valley’s softball team (left) still hasn’t played this spring (as of 3/10) and is shown with last year’s section title plaque. One of the hottest baseball teams to start playing, meanwhile, is at Dana Hills. Photos: Mark Tennis & DanaHillsBaseball.com.
Preseason No. 1 teams College Park (baseball) & Mission Viejo (softball) both off to solid starts with huge tourney appearances upcoming. Highest ranked newcomers are Harvard-Westlake & San Jose Valley Christian (baseball) plus Los Osos & Riverside M.L. King (softball).
Check below for this week’s new list of the State Top 20 baseball and softball rankings.
To read our breakdowns on each Top 20 team (starting next week), why some of these rankings moves were made, which teams are on the bubble and for divisional state rankings (once basketball is complete), you need to be a member of our Gold Club. Join our team today by CLICKING HERE.
NEW CAL-HI SPORTS BASEBALL
TOP 20 OVERALL RANKINGS
This week’s updated State Top 20 for baseball does include a few important results from Monday and Tuesday, led by No. 1 College Park of Pleasant Hill blanking Monte Vista of Danville 9-0. The Falcons, who defeated Liberty of Brentwood 9-2 in their opener, received a great outing by their Mr. Baseball State Player of the Year frontrunner, Joe DeMers. All he did was pitch a perfect game with seven strikeouts and go 2-for-3 with a pair of runs batted in.
Later this week, College Park is slated to play San Ramon Valley not far from our Stockton office at the Banner Island Classic hosted by St. Mary’s of Stockton at the Stockton Ports’ home ballpark.
Then later this month, College Park (along with No. 2 in the state JSerra) will be playing at the National High School Invitational in Cary, N.C.
One important result from Wednesday, however, was not included in this week’s rankings. That would be new No. 3 Alemany of Mission Hills playing new No. 9 Harvard-Westlake of North Hollywood.
(Compiled by Mark Tennis with assistance from Paul Muyskens; updated through games played Tuesday, March 10; previous rating in parentheses)
Our State Coach of the Year from last season was James Davis from Granite Hills of El Cajon. His team won first game this season 6-0 over Ramona. Photo: EastCountySports.com.
1. (1) COLLEGE PARK (PLEASANT HILL) 2-0
2. (2) JSERRA (SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO) 0-0
3. (5) ALEMANY (MISSION HILLS) 4-0
4. (7) DE LA SALLE (CONCORD) 1-0
5. (14) DANA HILLS (DANA POINT) 7-0
6. (9) LA COSTA CANYON (CARLSBAD) 1-0
7. (10) BELLARMINE (SAN JOSE) 3-0
8. (11) SAN CLEMENTE 3-0
9. (NR) HARVARD-WESTLAKE (NORTH HOLLYWOOD) 4-0
10. (NR) VALLEY CHRISTIAN (SAN JOSE) 6-0
11. (15) RANCHO BERNARDO (SAN DIEGO) 1-0
12. (6) BUCHANAN (CLOVIS) 8-1
13. (19) GRANITE HILLS (EL CAJON) 1-0
14. (3) ELK GROVE 2-2
15. (13) CHATSWORTH 4-1
16. (NR) SANTA MARGARITA (RANCHO SM) 2-0
17. (24) CATHEDRAL CATHOLIC (SAN DIEGO) 1-0
18. (NR) CENTENNIAL (BAKERSFIELD) 8-1
19. (17) FOOTHILL (TUSTIN) 4-1
20. (NR) OAK RIDGE (EL DORADO HILLS) 2-0
Dropped Out:
Previous No. 4 Huntington Beach; No. 8 Aliso Niguel (Aliso Viejo); No. 12 Clovis; No. 16 Norco; No. 18 Great Oak (Temecula); No. 20 San Ramon Valley.
Note: Preseason Top 25 teams that dropped or did not move up into Top 20 were No. 21 Wilson (Long Beach); No. 22 Leland (San Jose); No. 23 Vista Murrieta (Murrieta); No. 25 Maria Carrillo (Santa Rosa).
Baseball Teams On The Bubble:
(Goes to Gold Club expanded post next week)
Aliso Niguel (Aliso Viejo) 3-2
Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 4-1
Cypress 2-0
Edison (Huntington Beach) 4-1
Esperanza (Anaheim) 5-1
Franklin (Elk Grove) 2-1
Great Oak (Temecula) 2-1-1
Heritage (Brentwood) 4-0
Huntington Beach 2-2
Jesuit (Carmichael) 2-0
Lincoln (Stockton) 4-0
Maria Carrillo (Santa Rosa) 2-1
Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 2-1
Milpitas 6-0
Norco 3-1
Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks) 5-0
Roosevelt (Eastvale) 4-1
San Benito (Hollister) 5-1
San Dimas 3-0
San Ramon Valley (Danville) 1-1
Santa Ynez 5-0
Serra (San Mateo) 4-1
St. Francis (Mountain View) 4-1
St. Mary’s (Stockton) 2-3
Sutter 3-0
Tesoro (Las Flores) 5-1
Trabuco Hills (Mission Viejo) 4-0-2
Vintage (Napa) 6-0
Vista 2-0
NEW CAL-HI SPORTS SOFTBALL
TOP 20 OVERALL RANKINGS
Before Tuesday, this week’s first regular season edition of the State Top 20 was compiled in pencil. There was a good reason for that: We knew that Northern California powerhouses Archbishop Mitty and Pioneer (both of San Jose) were going to square off against each other.
In that game, Pioneer came through with a 2-1 win based on some clutch pitching from UCLA-bound sophomore Holly Azevedo and a pair of solo home runs – one by Makenzie Drake in the first inning and the other by Caitlin Weisner in the fourth.
With the loss, Mitty went from being listed second in the state to having to fall behind unbeaten Pioneer. The Monarchs thus settled at No. 6 with the Mustangs going up to No. 5.
Preseason No. 1 Mission Viejo has impressed in its first three games and will be playing this week at the Dave Kops Tournament of Champions in Arizona. New No. 2 Norco also is going to the tournament along with No. 3 Pacifica and No. 8 Saugus.
(Compiled by Mark Tennis with assistance from Paul Muyskens; updated through games played Tuesday, March 10; previous rating in parentheses)
Katie Kibby and team at Vacaville opened on Tuesday with win over Vintage of Napa. Photo: Kelsey Kibby (sister).
1. (1) MISSION VIEJO 3-0
2. (3) NORCO 3-0
3. (4) PACIFICA (GARDEN GROVE) 1-0
4. (11) SANTIAGO (CORONA) 7-1
5. (14) PIONEER (SAN JOSE) 3-0
6. (2) ARCHBISHOP MITTY (SAN JOSE) 3-1
7. (6) VACAVILLE 1-0
8. (15) SAUGUS 5-0
9. (NR) LOS OSOS (RANCHO CUCAMONGA) 8-1
10. (10) AMADOR VALLEY (PLEASANTON) 0-0
11. (7) MURRIETA VALLEY (MURRIETA) 4-1
12. (8) CANYON (ANAHEIM) 1-1
13. (22) LUTHERAN (ORANGE) 5-0
14. (5) MOORPARK 2-1
15. (NR) M.L. KING (RIVERSIDE) 2-1
16. (13) CHINO HILLS 2-1
17. (NR) FOOTHILL (TUSTIN) 3-0
18. (12) LOS ALAMITOS 3-1
19. (19) YUCAIPA 4-1
20. (23) CLOVIS 2-0
Dropped Out:
Previous No. 9 Centennial (Bakersfield); No. 16 Cathedral Catholic (San Diego); No. 17 Valley Christian (San Jose); No. 18 Carson; No. 20 San Benito (Hollister).
Note: Preseason Top 25 teams that dropped or did not move up into Top 20 were No. 21 Poway, No. 24 La Serna (Whittier) and No. 25 Burbank. San Benito still listed at 0-0 so basically dropped from No. 20 in preseason to No. 21 this week.
Softball Teams On The Bubble
(Goes to Gold Club expanded post next week)
Alhambra (Martinez) 0-0
Benicia 2-0
Bonita Vista (Chula Vista) 1-0
Buchanan (Clovis) 6-1
Burbank 4-1
Carlsbad 0-0
Carondelet (Concord) 0-0
Carson 2-1
Cathedral Catholic (San Diego) 1-1
Chino 4-2
Clovis West (Fresno) 6-1
East Union (Manteca) 4-0
El Modena (Orange) 1-1
Etiwanda 3-1
Frontier (Bakersfield) 13-0
Highland (Palmdale) 3-0
Huntington Beach 2-0
James Logan (Union City) 0-0
La Serna (Whittier) 0-0
North (Torrance) 1-0
Notre Dame (Salinas) 2-0
Patrick Henry (San Diego) 1-0
Poway 0-0
Roseville 1-0
San Benito (Hollister) 0-0
Santa Monica 0-0
Vista Murrieta (Murrieta) 2-0
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
