Baseball State Rankings By Divisions

Junior catcher Alex Jackson and team at Rancho Bernardo were jumped to No. 4 in Division I in this week’s rankings. Photo: Harold Abend.

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After nine new teams went into last week’s Cal-Hi Sports’ divisional state rankings, there are 13 that are newcomers this week.

The race for final No. 1 rankings also has shifted focus this week from the south to the north. Granada of Livermore has been put into the top spot in Division I in place of Santa Ana Mater Dei while in Division II it’s now Casa Grande of Petaluma in place of Redlands East Valley. Then down in Division IV, unbeaten Pacific Grove keeps winning and will try to make some history in this Saturday’s CIF Central Coast Section finals at San Jose Municipal Stadium.

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 for the 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 21; previous rank in parentheses; could be a few scores from early this week still unaccounted for):

DIVISION I
1. (2) Granada (Livermore) 23-1
2. (3) Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood) 25-4
3. (5) St. Francis (Mountain View) 27-4
4. (7) Rancho Bernardo (San Diego) 26-4
5. (1) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 24-3
6. (8) Serra (San Mateo) 26-6
7. (13) El Toro (Lake Forest) 23-6
8. (11) Clovis North (Fresno) 25-6
9. (15) Buchanan (Clovis) 25-5-1
10. (NR) Elk Grove 26-5
11. (6) Turlock 28-2
12. (NR) Clovis 24-8
13. (4) Bellarmine (San Jose) 25-7
14. (NR) Pleasant Grove (Elk Grove) 24-8
15. (NR) Marina (Huntington Beach) 20-8
Dropped Out: Previous No. 9 Fountain Valley; No. 10 Canyon (Anaheim); No. 12 Carlsbad; No. 14 Lutheran (Orange).
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: The season will be over in the CIF Central Coast Section and CIF Central Section after this weekend. In some years, such as two years ago when Buchanan of Clovis was No. 1 in the nation, the completion of those playoffs has made the race for No. 1 in the state anti-climactic. This year, if St. Francis of Mountain View wins it all in the CCS, the Lancers probably will have to wait to see if they will be No. 1 in the state. As in the top 20 overall, Granada of Livermore moved up to No. 1 for this division due to Mater Dei’s shocking loss to Huntington Beach. The Oilers are the same team that beat Mater Dei early last season when the Monarchs were ranked high nationally. Several other top 20 teams have fallen in the pursuit to get through the CIFSS Division I playoff bracket to play for the section title at Dodger Stadium, but El Toro continued to roll Tuesday when it scored eight runs off of Moorpark and ace Sean Barry in a 8-0 win. No. 2 Harvard-Westlake of North Hollywood, meanwhile, has scored 19 runs in its first two playoff games heading into its quarterfinal game against Santa Margarita of Rancho SM, which just knocked off Fountain Valley.

DIVISION II
1. (2) Casa Grande (Petaluma) 25-2
2. (3) Campolindo (Moraga) 18-6-1
3. (5) Clayton Valley (Concord) 21-4
4. (6) Temecula Valley (Temecula) 21-5
5. (7) Los Osos (Rancho Cucamonga) 22-5
6. (4) Benicia 27-5
7. (8) College Park (Pleasant Hill) 18-5-1
8. (10) Cypress 23-8
9. (1) Redlands East Valley (Redlands) 23-5-1
10. (NR) Del Campo (Fair Oaks) 23-7
Dropped Out: Previous No. 9 Madison (San Diego).
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: With a 3-1 playoff-opening win over Arcadia, Redlands East Valley extended its winning streak to nine games but its season ended Tuesday in the second round of the CIFSS Division II playoffs due to an 8-4 loss to Vista Murrieta of Murrieta. Things seemed to be going well for the Wildcats as they broke a scoreless tie with four runs in the fourth inning and led 4-1 after five innings before the Broncos exploded for seven runs in the sixth inning. With REV losing and Benicia losing a game but still going in the double-elimination CIF Sac-Joaquin Section, the first three teams in this week’s D2 rankings are all from the CIF North Coast Section.

DIVISION III
1. (1) Oaks Christian (Westlake Village) 26-3-1
2. (3) Whitney (Rocklin) 28-1
3. (4) Serra (Gardena) 25-5
4. (5) Kaiser (Fontana) 24-3
5. (8) Gahr (Cerritos) 22-5
6. (9) San Dieguito (Encinitas) 24-6
7. (2) Bonita (La Verne) 25-4-1
8. (NR) Garden Grove 22-3
9. (NR) Lincoln 23-5
10. (NR) Serra (San Diego) 22-3
Dropped Out: Previous No. 6 Laguna Beach; No. 7 Vista del Lago (Folsom); No. 10 Quartz Hill.
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: With Serra of San Diego going in this week, all three Serra high schools in the state are now in the state baseball rankings (not including JSerra of San Juan Capistrano). Previous No. 2 Bonita’s CIFSS playoff loss was to Cathedral of Los Angeles, which makes Serra of Gardena look better because Cathedral lost twice in league play to the Cavaliers. No. 1 Oaks Christian won its CIFSS playoff game on Tuesday against Savanna of Anaheim and will be in Friday’s quarterfinals. Remember that Oaks Christian and Serra of Gardena are not in the same CIFSS divisions and would not be playing each other.

DIVISION IV
1. (1) Pacific Grove 30-0
2. (2) La Jolla Country Day (La Jolla) 23-5
3. (4) Kerman 26-4
4. (5) Capital Christian (Sacramento) 24-5-1
5. (6) Central Catholic (Modesto) 24-6
6. (8) Oak Hills (Hesperia) 23-7
7. (9) Ontario Christian 23-5
8. (NR) Menlo School (Atherton) 22-7
9. (NR) Linden 24-4-1
10. (NR) Templeton 19-4
Dropped Out: Previous No. 3 Paraclete (Lancaster); No. 7 Palma (Salinas); No. 10 St. Francis CCC (Watsonville).
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: Pacific Grove is now one win away from finishing the season with a perfect 31-0 record as the Breakers picked up their 30th win of the season with a 10-3 win over Stevenson of Pebble Beach in the CCS Division III semifinals. Going back through last year, they also have 37 in a row heading into Saturday’s title game against Menlo School of Atherton. Menlo won in the other semifinal 4-3 over Palma of Salinas, which was the top seed in the division despite Pacific Grove’s win streak. Several teams in this division also were able to move up in this week’s rankings due to previous No. 3 Paraclete falling to Village Christian of Sun Valley in the CIFSS Division V playoffs.

DIVISION V
1. (1) Desert Christian Academy (Bermuda Dunes) 26-2
2. (2) Bradshaw Christian (Sacramento) 23-6
3. (3) Caruthers 23-3-1
4. (4) Mariposa County (Mariposa) 22-3
5. (NR) Webb (Claremont) 20-4
6. (6) Head-Royce (Oakland) 20-5
7. (8) Maxwell 23-6
8. (NR) Capistrano Valley Christian (SJ Capistrano) 22-8
9. (NR) Hamilton (Hamilton City) 22-6
10. (10) High Tech (San Diego) 22-5
Dropped Out: Previous No. 5 Malibu; No. 7 Windward (Los Angeles); No. 9 Fall River (McArthur).
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: Top-ranked Desert Christian Academy advanced to the CIFSS Division VI quarterfinals with a 3-2 win on Tuesday over Buckley of Sherman Oaks. The Conquerors will be tested with a matchup against Webb. We moved up Webb this week to No. 5 after it topped previous No. 7 Windward on Tuesday. In the CIF Northern Section Division IV final, Hamilton of Hamilton City topped previous No. 9 Fall River 6-5. The Braves would have made alum Kyle Lohse of the Milwaukee Brewers proud the way they battled and have been given Fall River’s spot in this week’s rankings.

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