Headwear for this week’s No. 1 baseball team and this week’s No. 1 softball team are represented above. Photos: Twitter.com & PrepSportswear.com.
Unbeaten San Dimas may be in midst of history-making season so it’s now in the No. 1 overall position in the State Top 20 for baseball. No major changes in softball, but previous No. 5 Orange Lutheran has to fall and newcomers are Norco and Highland of Palmdale.
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, 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
It was another tough week to do the State Top 20 in baseball and this time instead of not moving up undefeated San Dimas due to questions about strength of schedule the time has come to give the Saints their opportunity at No. 1.
Last week’s No. 1 team, College Park of Pleasant Hill, suffered its fourth loss of the season on Saturday in a 3-0 matchup with CIF North Coast Section rival De La Salle of Concord. Big-time lefty pitcher Justin Hooper shut down the Falcons on three hits and struck out 10 while the Spartans plated enough early runs against College Park ace Joe DeMers.
Previous No. 2 Harvard-Westlake also lost last week in a 1-1 series matchup with league rival Alemany of Mission Hills. While we haven’t dropped the Wolverines behind Alemany like the L.A. Times has done (they are still 21-4 overall) we have moved up Mission League frontrunner Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks from No. 13 to No. 7.
Many in Southern California still have JSerra of San Juan Capistrano No. 1 even though the Lions had a tie last week against Servite of Anaheim. They did beat the Friars twice later on, but we still have St. Francis of Mountain View higher in the state due to the Lancers having beaten JSerra for the championship of the Boras Classic.
To us, if San Dimas runs the table and wins the CIF Southern Section Division III championship with a perfect record, it will be comparable to Ontario going 26-0 and being ranked No. 1 in the state overall back in 1991. Strength of schedule does have its limits just like any rankings criteria and at some point gets trumped by an undefeated season. San Dimas has now reached that point where its possible unbeaten season will trump everybody else with four losses or more.
(Compiled by Mark Tennis; updated through games played Saturday, May 9; previous rating in parentheses)
One of the top players for newly ranked Heritage of Brentwood is junior outfielder Jake Cruce. Heritage is now in the State Top 20 for both baseball and softball. Photo: NCSA.org.
1. (3) SAN DIMAS 26-0
2. (5) LA COSTA CANYON (CARLSBAD) 20-4
3. (6) ST. FRANCIS (MOUNTAIN VIEW) 22-5
4. (7) JSERRA (SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO) 22-4-1
5. (8) BUCHANAN (CLOVIS) 26-4
6. (1) COLLEGE PARK (PLEASANT HILL) 18-4
7. (13) NOTRE DAME (SHERMAN OAKS) 21-5
8. (10) AGOURA (AGOURA HILLS) 21-3
9. (12) SAN CLEMENTE 21-6
10. (4) LOS GATOS 26-4
11. (14) VALLEY CHRISTIAN (SAN JOSE) 21-6
12. (9) HUNTINGTON BEACH 19-8
13. (2) HARVARD-WESTLAKE (NORTH HOLLYWOOD) 21-4
14. (11) DANA HILLS (DANA POINT) 23-6
15. (15) OAK RIDGE (EL DORADO HILLS) 23-4
16. (16) RANCHO BERNARDO (SAN DIEGO) 19-6
17. (18) DE LA SALLE (CONCORD) 14-6
18. (NR) CENTENNIAL (BAKERSFIELD) 23-5
19. (17) FRANKLIN (ELK GROVE) 21-6
20. (NR) HERITAGE (BRENTWOOD) 18-4
Dropped Out:
Previous No. 19 Vista Murrieta (Murrieta); No. 20 San Ramon Valley (Danville).
NEW CAL-HI SPORTS SOFTBALL
TOP 20 OVERALL RANKINGS
After a 10-inning 4-3 loss to Mater Dei of Santa Ana in its only game last week, previous No. 5 Lutheran of Orange has now lost both Trinity League games to the Monarchs after 2-1 loss last month.
The Lancers, who still are 23-3 overall, fell a game and a half in back of the Monarchs in league. While Mater Dei still has eight losses on the season, Orange Lutheran had to fall from No. 5 to No. 16 as a consequence of that result.
The four other teams from last week’s rankings all had no trouble in its games.
Top-ranked Mission Viejo, which also is No. 1 in the FullCountSoftball.com FAB 50 national rankings, clubbed Aliso Niguel of Aliso Viejo 14-2 and swamped Capistrano Valley of Mission Viejo 9-1.
State No. 2 Pioneer of San Jose maintained its pressure on the Diablos by also remaining unbeaten. The Mustangs rang up back-to-back shutouts of Campbell Westmont (9-0) and San Jose Mt. Pleasant (5-0). They started this week with three straight shutouts and 18 for the season.
(Compiled by Harold Abend; updated through reported games played Saturday, May 9; previous rating in parentheses)
1. (1) MISSION VIEJO 24-0
2. (2) PIONEER (SAN JOSE) 25-0
3. (3) YUCAIPA 24-3
4. (4) SANTIAGO (CORONA) 25-3
5. (6) PACIFICA (GARDEN GROVE) 19-4-1
6. (7) ELK GROVE 24-2
7. (8) GRAND TERRACE 20-3
8. (9) AMADOR VALLEY (PLEASANTON) 17-3
9. (10) HERITAGE (BRENTWOOD) 19-2
10. (11) ARCHBISHOP MITTY (SAN JOSE) 22-3
11. (12) LOS ALAMITOS 22-6
12. (13) CHINO HILLS 23-5
13. (17) MURRIETA VALLEY (MURRIETA) 23-6
14. (15) WEST RANCH (VALENCIA) 22-5
15. (18) WOODCREEK (ROSEVILLE) 21-1-1
16. (5) LUTHERAN (ORANGE) 23-3
17. (NR) NORCO 21-7
18. (NR) HIGHLAND (PALMDALE) 22-2
19. (19) PATRICK HENRY (SAN DIEGO) 21-3-1
20. (20) BONITA VISTA (CHULA VISTA) 19-3-1
Dropped Out:
Previous No. 14 James Logan (Union City); No. 16 Poway.
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
