Bradshaw Christian of Sacramento has only one loss this season entering Thursday’s NorCal regional playoffs. The Pride is shown above after it won CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D5 title. Photo: Twitter.com.
We can now do these rankings by division only twice each season because we have no idea what divisions teams are going to placed until the Sunday before CIF regional playoffs and then each team plays three times in five days. Final rankings will be done later next week and we’ll have more time to study everything more closely, but here’s a look at where we have everyone ranked entering Thursday’s regional semifinals. No. 1 teams are Corona (D1), Cardinal Newman (D2), Oakmont (D3), Bradshaw Christian (D4) and Colusa (D5).
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(Records through Tuesday, May 28 regional games)
*Season complete.
**Forfeits not included.
Note: All teams are ranked even if they opted out of the CIF regional playoffs. We also look for teams that aren’t in the CIF regional playoffs because they lost in section playoffs or played in a section championship and their section doesn’t allow its runner-up in some divisions to move on.
DIVISION I
1. Corona 30-3*
2. Granada (Livermore) 30-1
3. Harvard-Westlake (Studio City) 27-5*
4. Lutheran (Orange) 26-7
5. Huntington Beach 24-9
6. Santa Margarita (Rancho SM) 22-9-1
7. St. Mary’s (Stockton) 29-5
8. La Mirada 24-7
9. De La Salle (Concord) 21-7
10. Valley Christian (San Jose) 27-6*
11. Torrey Pines (San Diego) 23-11*
12. Liberty (Bakersfield) 30-4
13. San Dimas 25-4*
14. Clovis West (Fresno) 26-8*
15. Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 20-12-1
Notes: Next teams in order are from our overall State TOP 35, but after Tuesday games would be No. 16 Rancho Bernardo (24-8) and would include Liberty of Bakersfield (which the CIF seeded D2), Rocklin, Franklin of Elk Grove, Mater Dei of Santa Ana, Granite Hills of El Cajon, Granite Bay and JSerra. No. 2 Granada needed extra innings for the second straight game on Tuesday to get past Clovis West, 2-1 in eight innings, in its NorCal playoff opener. We went close to home to see St. Mary’s of Stockton edge Valley Christian, 4-3 in 10 innings. Granada will now get a rematch with De La Salle of its 14-inning two-day game in the North Coast Section final on Thursday while St. Mary’s will host Archbishop Mitty. In the south, all four CIF Southern Section D1 teams won in their games vs CIF San Diego Section Open Division teams. That means it will be OLu vs Santa Margarita and La Mirada vs Huntington Beach in Thursday’s semifinals. If Granada doesn’t win the NorCal title, Harvard-Westlake (which like Corona opted out of the regionals) would move back up to No. 2 for the final rankings.
Taylor Busch is the junior from Moorpark who smashed that apparent home run that was later ruled a ground rule double for the Musketeers during the CIFSS D2 final. Photo: Twitter.com.
DIVISION II
1. Cardinal Newman (Santa Rosa) 26-5
2. Hart (Newhall) 26-5*
3. Redwood (Larkspur) 27-4
4. Beckman (Irvine) 25-6-1*
5. St. John Bosco (Bellflower) 21-11
6. St. Ignatius (San Francisco) 21-10
7. Poway 23-11
8. Moorpark 19-11-1
9. Elk Grove 22-13
10. Ayala (Chino Hills) 16-12-1
Bubble: Arcadia 22-9*, Arlington (Riverside) 26-5, College Park (Pleasant Hill) 19-8*, Los Alamitos 24-8*, Ukiah 17-8*, Westlake (Westlake Village) 26-6*, Woodcreek (Roseville) 21-11.
Notes: As soon as that controversial home run or ground-rule double or whatever that was happened in Hart’s win over Moorpark for the CIFSS D2 title, we knew it was possible that the Indians could finish No. 1 in the final D2 state rankings. They have opted out of this week’s playoffs. Cardinal Newman getting seeded in D2 in the north and not D1 does make it possible for a team other than Hart to finish No. 1. The Cardinals won in eight innings in their NorCal D2 opener on Tuesday, 2-1, over Chico. They will now play Elk Grove in the semifinals with Redwood and St. Ignatius meeting in the other semifinal. Moorpark did accept a bid to play this week and won on Tuesday, 6-0, over CIF L.A. City Section Open Division champ Bell. We’re not sure why Bell was put in D2, but Moorpark can reach the final with a win on Thursday vs Ayala. Also note that we consider CIF SoCal D2 top seed Liberty of Bakersfield to be D1 in just about every sport. The Patriots won in their game on Tuesday, 14-5, over Westlake of Westlake Village.
Bakersfield Christian pitcher Mason Brassfield is one of the reported state leaders for strikeouts. Photo: Twitter.com.
DIVISION III
1. Oakmont (Roseville) 28-7
2. Bakersfield Christian 27-5
3. Point Loma (San Diego) 19-8-4
4. Camarillo 24-5*
5. Acalanes (Lafayette) 23-4*
6. University City (San Diego) 28-5
7. Chino Hills 22-8-2
8. Valhalla (El Cajon) 25-6
9. Central Catholic (Modesto) 23-9
10. Kingsburg 25-8*
Bubble: Bell 22-7*, Birmingham (Lake Balboa) 20-11-1, Carmel 22-7*, Christopher (Gilroy) 20-8, Colony (Ontario) 26-7-1*, Lincoln 23-8-1, Oakdale 23-9, Pacifica (Oxnard) 19-12-1, St. Francis (La Canada) 19-15.*
Notes: We have three teams at the top of this group that are still going in this week’s regional playoffs. Oakmont is the No. 1 seed in NorCal D3 and defeated Gridley, 6-4, on Tuesday. The Vikings are the only team in the group that was inside the State TOP 35 this week at No. 34 so this ranking matches that one. Bakersfield Christian was placed in SoCal D3 and won on Tuesday as the No. 2 seed, 11-1, over Palm Desert. Point Loma will be the squad’s next opponent. Note that we are not going to place a team from the best league in the state, Trinity, down in D3 the way that the CIF did. We therefore have St. John Bosco in D2 and right behind the team it lost to in the CIFSS D3 championship. Camarillo opted out of this week after winning the CIFSS D4 title. Acalanes didn’t opt out, but played up in the NCS D1 playoffs and went out in the semifinals with a loss to Granada. The Dons are almost always medium schools or D3 in all state rankings we do. Chino Hills is the top seed in the CIF SoCal D4 playoffs and is playing University City in the semifinals after winning on Tuesday, 11-1, over North Hollywood.
These Liberty players shown during 2023 CIF Central Section playoffs. Photo: Facebook.com.
DIVISION IV
1. Bradshaw Christian (Sacramento) 30-1
2. Liberty (Madera Ranchos) 30-3*
3. Justin-Siena (Napa) 18-10*
4. Piedmont 18-9
5. Fowler 26-6*
6. Azusa 19-5
7. Menlo School (Atherton) 22-9
8. Arrowhead Christian (Redlands) 19-9*
9. Mountain View 18-13
10. Maranatha Christian (San Diego) 21-11*
Bubble: Chavez (Delano) 20-12, King’s Academy (Sunnyvale) 18-11-2*, Mt. Miguel (Spring Valley) 16-16, Oakland Tech (Oakland) 19-6, Taft 19-10*, Shafter 22-6, St. Mary’s (Berkeley) 16-10*, Sutter 24-7-1.*
Notes: A 2-1 win on Tuesday over Branson of Ross pushed Bradshaw Christian into Thursday’s NorCal D4 semifinals where it will host Mountain View. We would have seeded the Pride and their 30-1 record ahead of Piedmont, which is hosting Colusa in the other NorCal semifinal. Justin-Siena is a team that beat Piedmont, 11-1, during the regular season and also is higher ranked here. The Braves went out in the SJS D5 playoffs to Central Catholic of Modesto. Speaking of playing up, Liberty had to do that in Tuesday’s NorCal D3 playoffs and lost, 12-4, to Christopher of Gilroy. It will be hard to put any team at the top of any division at the end that doesn’t win a regional title, but the Hawks are a good candidate if Bradshaw doesn’t win out. We also reserve the right to jump another team into No. 1 if Bradshaw loses. We will never drop a No. 1 team once it gets there, but hopping one at No. 2 is a different scenario.
DIVISION V
1. Colusa 28-3
2. Woodland Christian 24-4
3. Ferndale 19-2-1
4. Imperial 24-8*
5. Trinity Classical (Canyon Country) 19-1*
6. Leroy Greene Academy (Sac) 23-5*
7. Oxford Academy (Garden Grove) 18-15-1*
8. Pacifica Christian (Newport Beach) 22-8*
9. Ripon Christian 22-9*
10. Etna 25-4*
Bubble: Los Molinos 17-10*, Lindsay 19-11*, Riverside Prep (Oro Grande) 22-7*, St. Francis (Watsonville) 22-5*, Woodlake 21-9.*
Notes: Colusa is in the NorCal D4 playoffs, but would be D5 by our five-division criteria. The RedHawks took on Sac-Joaquin Section D4 champion Casa Roble on Tuesday and won, 8-1. Woodland Christian and Ferndale are in the NorCal D5 playoffs and won their games on Tuesday over Los Molinos and Etna, respectively. They are playing each other on Thursday. Imperial lost in a 2-1 game to University City in the CIF San Diego Section D4 final but the runner-ups in that section don’t advance to the regionals. The Tigers also had a win during the regular season over Casa Roble.
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
