Players and coaches from JSerra of San Juan Capistrano signal two after they topped La Mirada for the Boras Classic Southern Section title since it’s the second straight year they’ve accomplished that feat. Photo: @TheBorasClassic / Twitter.com.
In a difficult week to do rankings since eight of the top 10 teams from last week all lost at least once, the team we’re moving to No. 1 is previous No. 2 Orange Lutheran. Getting a win over Cypress (No. 1 last week) and still having just three losses overall is the difference. The Lancers, along with this week’s No. 2 team from Harvard-Westlake, will try to win this week’s USA Baseball National High School Invitational title in North Carolina. Newcomers this week are Yucaipa, Archbishop Mitty of San Jose and San Luis Obispo. The first 20 teams are broken down by writeups and highlights for the best state baseball rankings package that can be found anywhere.
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(Previous ranking listed in parentheses)
(Through reported results of Saturday, March 30)
(Results from any games played on Monday, April 1 or later not included)
(Thanks to correspondents Chuck Nan for Orange County, Daniel Poulter for Northern California & Bill Hutton for CIF Central Coast Section for providing writeups & information)
1. (2) Lutheran (Orange) 13-3
Despite dropping its first game at the SoCal Boras Classic, the Lancers won three straight afterward and move to No. 1 essentially for getting a 1-0 win to close the week over previous No. 1 Cypress. It also helped their rise since just about every other top 10 team from last week except No. 8 De La Salle and No. 9 Poway all dropped at least one game, too. Facing a rough gauntlet of a schedule over a two-week span, OLu sputtered against Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks) in their first game at the Boras Classic. The feature game of the day saw a low-scoring duel that was tied 1-1 after one inning. The Knights were able to push across a run in the third that ended up being the decider. ND pitching surrendered just four base hits to the Lancers. Christian Rodriguez pitched well for OLu, going 4 2/3 innings and allowing just one earned run, but was still saddled with the loss. The next game, the Lancers were able to bounce-back into the win column with a narrow 2-0 win over Marantha (Pasadena) in the consolation bracket. Junior Max Rajcic, a USC-commit, was spectacular on the mound as he earned the win. Rajcic allowed no runs and just two base hits while fanning 10 in the process. On Thursday, OLu advanced to the consolation final with a 5-0 win over Great Oak (Temecula). The Lancers won the consolation title by utilizing four pitchers who combined on a one-hitter to stop Cypress. OLu scored the game’s only run on an error in the bottom of the sixth inning. Head coach Eric Borba’s squad plays this week at the National High School Invitational in North Carolina along with No. 2 Harvard-Westlake and No. 4 La Mirada.
