Softball State Rankings By Divisions

Petaluma standouts Joelle Krist and Dana Thomsen have helped their team climb in both the D2 and overall state rankings. Photo by Harold Abend.

Santiago of Corona loses in Tuesday game to M.L. King, which gives bumps to Esperanza, Vintage and James Logan. No. 1 teams are Pacifica of Garden Grove, Mission Viejo, Bishop Amat, Francis Parker and Redwood Christian.

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When a team like M.L. King of Riverside posts a 4-0 win over a team like Santiago of Corona (which is what happened on Tuesday in Riverside County), we’re reminded of the possibility that a team such as the Wolves often gets hot for the CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs.

The Wolves (22-6) still aren’t in the state rankings due to their number of losses, but they’re very good and capable of going on such a run.

When that happens, it’s actually more fun to compile rankings because the comparisons are not obvious.

This year’s CIFSS Division I playoffs also may not carry as much weight at the top of the rankings as in most seasons. This is because overall state No. 1 Mission Viejo will be in the Division II bracket and that bracket also will include a couple of other heavyweights like Moorpark, Chino and Lakewood.

Please note that the Cal-Hi Sports five-divisions will not match the same divisions in some CIF sections because some of those sections have more than five divisions in its playoffs. In the CIF Southern Section, for example, Division I is Division I and Division II is Division II for our state rankings. The CIFSS Division III and Division IV teams, however, are combined for our format. This means that Division V for the CIFSS is the same as Division IV for us and that Division VI is the same as Division V.

Here are this week’s rankings (after games of Tuesday, May 7; previous rank in parentheses; could be a few scores from early this week still unaccounted for):

DIVISION I
1. (2) Pacifica (Garden Grove) 23-5
2. (3) Yorba Linda 21-2
3. (4) Great Oak (Temecula) 15-3
4. (5) Amador Valley (Pleasanton) 19-2
5. (1) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 22-4
6. (7) Esperanza (Anaheim) 23-3
7. (8) Vintage (Napa) 27-0
8. (9) James Logan (Union City) 20-1
9. (6) Santiago (Corona) 24-5
10. (10) El Diamante (Visalia) 26-1-1
11. (11) Norco 23-6
12. (12) California (San Ramon) 18-3
13. (13) Marina (Huntington Beach) 23-3
14. (NR) San Benito (Hollister) 21-3
15. (15) Camarillo 23-2-1
Dropped Out: Previous No. 14 Los Osos (Rancho Cucamonga).
Bubble Teams: See list on new softball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: Santiago’s loss to M.L. King provided the reasoning to give Esperanza, Vintage and James Logan the ability to move up. Vintage’s 27-0 record may be questionable from a strength of schedule standpoint, but the Crushers will be in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs (which historically is actually pretty strong). If they were to win that section title and finish unbeaten and a team with six or seven losses wins in the CIFSS Division I bracket, oh boy that could be really interesting and a No. 1 ranking would have to at least be considered. James Logan, by the way, avenged its only loss on Tuesday by posting a 6-1 triumph over Newark Memorial.

DIVISION II
1. (1) Mission Viejo 25-1
2. (2) Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 25-0
3. (3) Moorpark 22-3
4. (4) Chino 22-2
5. (6) Bonita Vista (Chula Vista) 18-4-1
6. (5) Lakewood 21-6
7. (9) Petaluma 20-1
8. (NR) Rocklin 22-3
9. (8) Alhambra (Martinez) 17-2-1
10. (NR) Benicia 23-3
Dropped Out: No. 7 Casa Roble (Orangevale); No. 10 Pleasant Valley (Chico).
Bubble Teams: See list on new softball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: Joelle Krist, whose cousin Chad Krist was a star at Petaluma and then Cal, and is now in the Chicago Cubs’ minor league organization, smashed a 220-foot two-run home run that accounted for all the runs in what was a key 2-0 win last week for Petaluma over Martinez Alhambra. One of seven Petaluma girls with 10 or more RBIs is also senior pitcher Dana Thomsen. With the top six teams in this division all in the overall top 20, Petaluma’s win almost propelled the girls into those rankings. Alhambra, meanwhile, didn’t drop out and only went down to No. 9. The Bulldogs were aided by the fact that previous No. 7 Casa Roble and previous No. 10 Pleasant Valley both suffered losses.

DIVISION III
1. (1) Bishop Amat (La Puente) 19-4
2. (2) Highland (Palmdale) 21-1
3. (4) Sierra (Manteca) 21-2
4. (5) Santana (Santee) 21-5
5. (6) Burbank 23-2
6. (7) California (Whittier) 23-4
7. (3) La Quinta 24-2
8. (NR) Dos Pueblos (Goleta) 20-3-1
9. (10) Soquel 21-4
10. (NR) Segerstrom (Santa Ana) 18-5
Dropped Out: Previous No. 8 Citrus Valley (Redlands); No. 9 Red Bluff.
Bubble Teams: See list on new softball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: The one result that caused the most change in this division for this week was previous No. 3 La Quinta going down to a 5-1 loss to Palm Desert. Soquel moved up one spot even though there is one more loss showing on the Knights’ record. That loss, though, was from a few weeks ago that was unreported. The girls won their reported game from Tuesday 11-4 over Santa Cruz.

DIVISION IV
1. (1) Francis Parker (San Diego) 19-2
2. (2) Wheatland 29-2-1
3. (3) Calvary Chapel (Downey) 18-4
4. (4) Santa Catalina (Monterey) 23-2
5. (5) Aquinas (San Bernardino) 20-2
6. (7) Salesian (Richmond) 17-1
7. (8) Liberty (Madera Ranchos) 20-6
8. (9) Hughson 20-4-1
9. (10) La Jolla Country Day (La Jolla) 20-3
10. (6) Marysville 21-4-1
Dropped Out: None.
Bubble Teams: See list on new softball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: Salesian of Richmond may be ranked higher than Santa Catalina according to a Bay Area ranking put together by our own Harold Abend for another website, but the divisional state rankings aren’t done primarily by him so they can be different. We like Santa Catalina because it was No. 1 in this division last year and will be in a tougher section playoff bracket than Salesian will be in. The biggest changes in this division for this week were related to previous No. 10 Marysville falling 4-1 to Dixon.

DIVISION V
1. (1) Redwood Christian (San Lorenzo) 19-0
2. (2) Pomona Catholic (Pomona) 16-9
3. (3) Woodland Christian 16-1
4. (4) Rosamond 22-3
5. (6) Sierra Pacific (Hanford) 20-3
6. (5) Port of Los Angeles (San Pedro) 22-8
7. (7) Kern Valley (Lake Isabella) 22-3-1
8. (8) East Nicolaus 19-5
9. (9) Bellarmine-Jefferson (Burbank) 16-10
10. (NR) Waterford 17-5-1
Dropped Out: Previous No. 10 Bishop.
Bubble Teams: See list on new softball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: Kudos to the team at Port of Los Angeles, which continued to play strong Division I or Division II opponents last week at the Redondo tourney. The Polar Bears had a win over Redondo Union of Redondo Beach and a loss to Agoura of Agoura Hills. The loss only dropped them one spot and that was only because Sierra Pacific of Hanford had an impressive week with triumphs against Granite Hills of Porterville and Woodlake. This week’s rankings don’t include a result from a scheduled Tuesday game between Kern Valley and Bishop. We dropped Bishop after a loss last week to Frazier Mountain, but it’s possible the Bobcats have already beaten Kern Valley this week.

Paul Muyskens contributed to this report.

Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @CalHiSports