All-State Baseball 2024: First Team

We conclude the release of our 42nd annual All-State Baseball Teams. State Team of the Year Corona has three on first team, but you’ll have to read the post to see which three (there’s also two on second team). We also got creative with a couple of the outfield positions instead of using even more on multi-purpose (for hitting/pitching). All first team players written up in this post. We also have a second team and third team (senior only/large schools only) in a separate post.

For the all-state second and third teams (Gold Club), CLICK HERE.

RELATED: All-State Medium & Small Schools | All-State Underclass (Juniors & Sophomores) | Final 2024 All-State Nominations (SoCal) Gold Club | Final 2024 All-State Nominations (NorCal) Gold Club

For Gold Club post of our all-time all-state baseball archives, CLICK HERE.

Note: We hope you enjoy this free post. State baseball record lists plus two of our four all-state baseball posts are for Gold Club members only. Our upcoming all-state frosh watch list (done next week) also will be Gold Club. To join our team today, CLICK HERE.

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Congratulations to these players who’ve been named first team overall for the 42nd edition of the Cal-Hi Sports all-state baseball honors program:

FIRST TEAM OVERALL CATCHERS

Nick Montgomery (Cypress) Sr.
The Empire League is one of the best in Southern California and Nick was named the MVP of that league as a catcher. It’s not like a lineman named league MVP in football, but it’s not the norm. Montgomery also was on the All-Orange County team with a .302 batting average and walked a remarkable 31 times. He also had four home runs. Nick had signed with Arizona State, but on Monday he was selected in the fifth round of the MLB Draft by the Atlanta Braves. He was third-highest high school player from the state who went in the draft behind Bryce Rainer of Harvard-Westlake and Braylon Doughty of Temecula Chaparral.

Josh Springer (Corona) Sr.
Here is the first of three Corona players written up for first team. The other two were the more obvious first teamers — State Player of the Year Seth Hernandez and pitcher Ethan Schiefelbein. We have State Sophomore of the Year Anthony Murphy on second team overall along with highly regarded junior pitcher-hitter Billy Carlson. Springer was the rock behind the plate for the CIFSS D1 champions. As a four-year starter and three-time all-leaguer, he can hit (.381 this season with 40 hits) but the fact that he had no errors in the last two seasons as the Corona catcher is what stands out the most. Josh has a scholarship to Oregon. On Tuesday, he was selected in the 12th round of the MLB Draft by the Texas Rangers.

FIRST TEAM OVERALL PITCHERS

Ross Clark (Lutheran, Orange) Sr.
This is who would be called the ace of the Orange Lutheran team that was in the CIF Southern Section D1 semifinals and that later won the CIF SoCal D1 championship with a final No. 4 state ranking. Clark was the Trinity League Pitcher of the Year and was on the All-Orange County team. Headed for Grand Canyon University for college, Ross went 9-0 with a 1.10 ERA.

Quinten Marsh (Valley Christian, San Jose) Jr.
He would have to go down as the top all-state player from a VC squad that was the front-runner in the CIF Central Coast Section but was upset in the semifinals. Marsh could have been multi-purpose, but has gone on to this year’s first team as a pitcher. He led all-time CCS coaching wins leader John Diatte’s team with a 9-3 record, 1.14 ERA and 88 strikeouts. At the plate, the younger brother of third team all-state Tatum Marsh led the Warriors with 34 hits and a .378 batting average. The Stanford commit also had 18 RBI and 23 runs scored.

Duncan Marsten (Harvard-Westlake, Studio City) Sr.
While the CIF Southern Section D1 finalists had one of the top players in the nation with Bryce Rainer, the Wolverines also had to have a big-time ace to enjoy the type of season they had and they did. Marsten was that guy from his first start and never let up. He wound up 11-1 with a 1.63 ERA and struck out 66 batters. Duncan will play next at the Wake Forest program in the ACC that had three picks out of the first 10 at this year’s MLB Draft.

Will Sanford (Point Loma, San Diego) Sr.
Despite posting just a 4-2 record, Sanford was picked as the CIF San Diego Section Pitcher of the Year by a media panel. The key totals that helped him get that honor were 119 strikeouts in 63 innings. Will also had a 1.19 ERA and he added some hitting stats (including 19 RBI). The Pointers’ graduated senior is now pointing north toward the University of Oregon.

Ethan Schiefelbein (Corona) Sr.
As a junior, Ethan was the Riverside Press-Enterprise Player of the Year and was first team all-state. The pitcher with a scholarship to UCLA was even better in 2024. He finished 8-0 with a 0.27 ERA (compared to 7-1 and 0.64). Maybe we will do a State Pitcher of the Year selection in the future (and going back through the years) and Ethan would be it. However, he wasn’t the top player of the year candidate at Corona in favor of junior teammate Seth Hernandez, who also was unbeaten as a pitcher but also was the State Team of the Year’s top power hitter. Schiefelbein also showed how impressive he has been during the MLB Draft on Sunday. He was the 72nd player picked and in the second round by the Detroit Tigers. Assuming he signs and doesn’t go to UCLA, it will be fun to perhaps watch Schiefelbein and No. 11 Tigers’ pick Bryce Rainer moving up the chain as teammates in that organization.

Zach Strickland (Maranatha, Pasadena) Jr.
The velocity on Strickland’s fastball has continued to uptick early this summer and that’s after he was reported to be “in the mid-90s” when he was selected as the San Gabriel Valley Pitcher of the Year. The junior who has committed to UCLA went 8-0 on the mound for the Minutemen. He also had a 0.39 ERA. Strickland, who had a 17-strikeout CIFSS D2 playoff win over Royal of Simi Valley, also hit well for Maranatha. That saw him bat .394 with two homers and 21 RBI.

Cade Townsend (Santa Margarita, Rancho SM) Sr.
Our friend Chuck Nan, who does media work for the SM baseball program, told us last December about Cade joining the team after being home-schooled. It was just going to be one season since Cade was going to be a senior. It’s an understatement to say he made the most of it. Townsend was sensational in his starts and ended the season named as the pitcher of the year by the OC Register. Townsend capped off his season with a three-hitter and 11 strikeouts in a CIFSS D1 playoff win vs Tesoro of Las Flores. He wound up 6-0 with 96 strikeouts in 63 innings with a 1.65 ERA and a .165 batting average against him. Cade has signed with Ole Miss.

FIRST TEAM OVERALL INFIELD

Charlie Bates (Palo Alto) Sr.
He’s been a staple of the top Class of 2024 player rankings since he was a freshman and had an outstanding senior season for the Vikings. Bates, who will play next at Stanford, was MVP of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division and was first team All-Bay Area. For the season, Charlie ripped seven homers and had a .354 batting average. He also led Paly in RBI with 22 and he stole 13 bases.

Mikey Boyd (Granada, Livermore) Jr.
We were only able to get two from the 32-1 CIF NorCal D1 champions up on to first team and Bay Area/NorCal Player of the Year Parker Warner was going to be one of them. Mikey ended up being the second since he was the team’s top offensive player. He batted .396 with a team-leading 35 RBI. Boyd also had four homers. He’s committed to Oregon.

Jake Downing (Serra, San Mateo) Sr.
It’s not automatic that the MVP of the West Catholic Athletic League also is all-state first team. But it sure does help. Downing captured that honor and also was on the All-Bay Area teams after helping the Padres earn a co-title in the league with Valley Christian. He had an impressive .396 batting average and drove in 27 runs. Downing has signed with Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo.

Jax Gimenez (Whitney, Rocklin) Sr.
The Sacramento Bee All-Metro Player of the Year concluded a great career for the Wildcats by displaying more power to everything else he was known for. Gimenez couldn’t say he led Whitney to a section or regional title, but helped the Wildcats to a 21-12 record and a semifinal spot in the SJS D2 playoffs. Jax hit five homers as senior that helped him drive in 24 runs. He also had a career best .431 batting average with 47 hits and 41 runs scored. Gimenez will play next at Oregon.

Jordy Lopez (Franklin, Elk Grove) Sr.
As a player who also pitched, Lopez was able to grab one of the final spots on this year’s all-state first team. He’s been known mostly as an infielder and was a key player on Franklin’s team that won the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D1 title team in 2023. This year, the Wildcats fell short in the semifinals with a loss to Rocklin. Jordy had a .441 batting average to lead the team and he also had an impressive total of nine triples with 42 runs scored and 21 RBI. On the mound, Lopez ended 7-1 with a 0.66 ERA. He will play next at Cal.

Bryce Rainer (Harvard-Westlake, Studio City) Sr.
The 11th pick of the Detroit Tigers in the first round of Sunday’s MLB Draft also completed the frosh-soph-junior-senior cycle of being the top player in the state for his four years at Harvard-Westlake. He just happened to have been edged for State Player of the Year by Corona’s Seth Hernandez. Bryce had 48 hits, 36 runs and 17 steals plus a .511 batting average for the season. He’s the fifth first round pick from Harvard-Westlake since 2012 and the other four are all currently in the major leagues.

Maverik Russell (La Mirada) Jr.
A UCLA commit, Maverik was the leadoff hitter for the 25-8 Matadores and definitely was the “top gun” that got them going. Coming into his third varsity season, Russell batted. 402 with 21 RBI. He also had four homers had a team-best 18 walks. Russell’s biggest honor so far in addition to this one was being named Long Beach Press-Telegram Player of the Year.

Brock Thompson (Liberty, Bakersfield) Sr.
This Oklahoma State-bound player had one of the swings of the season with a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh that tied the score in an eventual win for the Patriots over Moorpark in the CIF SoCal D2 championship. He also was the top player of the year candidate off a team that won the CIF Central Section D1 title. Thompson hammered 10 home runs to rank among the state leaders and he had a team-leading 38 RBI plus 45 runs scored and 43 hits.

Landon White (San Dimas) Sr.
The Arizona State signer would be “the guy” off of San Dimas’ 25-5 squad that was in the state top 15 for most of the season and finished with a 5-4 loss to Harvard-Westlake in the CIFSS D1 quarterfinals. White was a four-year standout and has been named the San Gabriel Valley Tribune Player of the Year. He led the Saints with a .398 batting average and 38 RBI. He also had four homers. For his career, Landon had 108 RBI and a career batting mark of .375.

FIRST TEAM OVERALL OUTFIELD

Derek Curiel (Lutheran, Orange) Sr.
When he was selected to the All-Orange County team, Derek was written up as a projected early-round pick for this week’s MLB Draft. After that in June, he took himself out of the draft and will instead concentrate on playing next season at LSU. Curiel has been called the best hitter in the Trinity League before and this season he led the Lancers with 33 hits. He’s also been a four-year varsity standout and well-known for defense in centerfield.

Michael Quedens (St. Mary’s, Stockton) Sr.
It was a breakthrough season for the Rams, who won their first CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D1 title since 2012 and lost by just 5-4 to Granada in the CIF NorCal D1 final. While the team had a lot of top juniors and sophomores, the senior leader (Quedens) is the one who earns a first team all-state slot. The University of Michigan recruit has been listed as an outfielder and played in the outfield during most of the times he wasn’t pitching. He was a two-way threat, however, with 51 hits on offense and an 8-1 pitching record. Quedens also batted .432 with five homers and 33 RBI and he had a 1.28 ERA plus 81 strikeouts.

T.P. Wentworth (Central Catholic, Modesto) Sr.
This is another player we are listing as an outfielder, but who could have been multi-purpose. We usually have a number of those types of players and look to list at least two or three as outfielders. Wentworth was considered runner-up to Boston Bateman for Medium Schools State Player of the Year. He had a NorCal regional playoff no-hitter vs Justin-Siena of Napa and ended 10-2 with a 0.51 ERA. T.P. also struck out 119 batters in 69 innings. As a batter, the multi-sport athlete with a baseball scholarship to Clemson batted .360 with seven homers, 32 hits and 28 RBI.

FIRST TEAM OVERALL MULTI-PURPOSE (Hit & Pitch)

Boston Bateman (Camarillo) Sr.
The State Medium Schools Player of the Year had a Sunday night he’ll never forget as the San Diego Padres selected him 52nd overall and in the second round of the 2024 MLB Draft. Bateman, who also has signed with LSU, led Camarillo to the CIFSS D4 title and a 24-5 record. Scorpion fans will never forget him, either. Boston went 11-1 as a pitcher with a 0.54 ERA and 130 strikeouts in 64 1/3 innings. He also had seven homers and 26 RBI.

Braylon Doughty (Chaparral, Temecula) Sr.
With a 4-3 record, 1.11 ERA and 85 strikeouts in 50 1/3 innings, Braylon was looking perhaps more like a second team pick in recent weeks. The Chaparral team also had some struggles and only went 15-13. Still, the MLB Draft fixed all of that. Doughty’s pitching potential was there for all to see all spring. On Sunday, he was the second-highest prep player from the state to be taken in the draft. Doughty was chosen by the Cleveland Guardians in the CB Round B or 36th overall. He also could have been put on multi-purpose for all-state since he blasted hight homers and drove in 31 runs.

Seth Hernandez (Corona) Jr.
The Mr. Baseball State Player of the Year as a junior for the Panthers automatically of course gets locked in to this group. Scouts and analysts who saw Seth in the summer knew he would have a huge impact at Corona in his first season there after being home schooled earlier. As big of one that he had maybe not. Hernandez led Corona with eight homers and 34 RBI. On the mound, he was 9-0 with 0.62 ERA and had 73 strikeouts in 56 innings. He has committed to Vanderbilt, but may be a very high choice in the first round of the 2025 MLB Draft.

Brenden Lewis (Granite Hills, El Cajon) Jr.
He was almost State Freshman of the Year in 2022 (that one went to Etiwanda’s Brady Ebel) and has continued to rank among the top prospects in the state for the Class of 2025. Lewis took it another step further this season as he was the CIF San Diego Section Player of the Year. Granite Hills didn’t win the Open Division section title but was near the top of the section rankings all season. Lewis is mostly ranked as an infielder, but he’s multi-purpose for this team. As a pitcher, he ended 9-3 with a 0.80 ERA. For hitting, Brenden batted .382 with three homers, 19 runs scored and 17 RBI. He also was one of the section’s top receivers in football last fall and helped Granite Hills win the SD Section Open Division title.

Tyler Patrick (Clovis West, Fresno) Sr.
This is a writeup we’ve been looking forward to for awhile. Tyler is the son of Clovis West head coach Kevin Patrick and he is the grandson of former Clovis head coach James Patrick. We covered Grandpa’s teams way back in the day and he’s one of the winningest head coaches in state history. We didn’t have to choose a Central Section Player of the Year, but it would have been either Tyler or Bakersfield Liberty’s Brock Thompson (both first team all-state). Patrick, who also was Clovis West’s quarterback in the football the past two seasons, had a .361 batting average this spring for the D1 section runner-up team. He also had six homers and 39 RBI. The Fresno State-bound player pitched like an ace for the Golden Eagles this season as well. He wound up 9-1 with a 1.08 ERA and struck out 77 batters in 65 innings.

Peyton Rodgers (Torrey Pines, San Diego) Sr.
We thought that Rodgers was a prime candidate to be the Player of the Year in the CIF San Diego Section after he helped the Falcons win this year’s SD Section Open Division title. That went to Granite Hills’ Brenden Lewis, but Peyton has made all-state as well. Rogers had 34 hits and a .304 average for TP on offense. As a pitcher, he gave up an ERA of 1.45 and had a 9-4 record. Peyton is staying home for San Diego State to play in college.

Nick Santivanez (El Modena, Orange) Sr.
It wasn’t a player from the Trinity League that was the Orange County Register Player of the Year but Santivanez. The Cal State Northridge-bound two-way standout had a 7-1 pitching record, 0.70 ERA plus 58 strikeouts in 50 innings. At the plate, Nick helped the 21-9 Vanguards with a .352 average, 19 RBI and 17 runs scored. He had a huge one-hitter in a 4-0 win over Foothill of Tustin that created a tie with the Knights for first-place in the Crestview League.

Levi Sterling (Notre Dame, Sherman Oaks) Sr.
He was on the All-Daily News team as a position player and hitter with 30 hits, a .319 batting average, three homers and 18 RBI. Levi’s pitching wasn’t as great this season, but it has been throughout his prep career and it’s why he was the 37th pick overall in this week’s MLB Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He still had a 2.42 ERA this season with 55 strikeouts in 45 1/3 innings. He was chosen in the compensation round before the second round began and was one of the highest high school players selected in the nation. Levi also had signed with the University of Texas.

Parker Warner (Granada, Livermore) Sr.
The Stanford-bound Warner was described as the “heart and soul” of the 32-1 Granada team that won the CIF NorCal D1 title and will go down as one of the greatest in NorCal history. Warner led the team on the mound and with bat in hand. His pitching was the most impressive at 13-0 with a 0.93 ERA. In Parker’s last five games (all in the playoffs), he had 16 strikeouts and no runs allowed. Warner also led Granada with a .530 on-base percentage and 36 runs scored. He has been named player of the year by the Bay Area News Group and San Francisco Chronicle.

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