Baseball State Rankings By Divisions

Pacific Grove head coach Gil Ruiz and his team will start next season with a 38-game win streak and will go for third straight section title. Photo: Mark Tennis.

Granada slammed out of NCS playoffs, which slims the field for No. 1 state ranking. Casa Grande vs. Campolindo play Saturday for No. 1 D2 ranking. A total of 120 teams in all appear on the bubble or in this week’s rankings.

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We wrote in last week’s divisional rankings that the focus had shifted from the south to the north. Well, after Wednesday afternoon, it’s back to the south.

Granada of Livermore was the team in the hot seat entering this week’s sectional semifinal games (of those sections that aren’t done yet) and on Wednesday the team’s hope for a magical finish of 26-1 was crushed in a 9-7 upset loss to Amador Valley of Pleasanton in the CIF North Coast Section Division I playoffs.

Amador Valley, which had lost twice earlier to the Matadors, took a 7-1 lead in the early going on a grand slam homer by Nick Carney. Granada did come back and had the tying runner at the plate in the seventh, but 9-7 was as close as it got.

With Granada losing, Harvard-Westlake of North Hollywood is now in position to end No. 1 in the state both for Division I and for overall with a win in its final game. The Wolverines will play Marina of Huntington Beach on Friday night at Dodger Stadium for the CIF Southern Section Division I championship. They edged Los Alamitos 3-2 in the CIFSS semifinals on Tuesday behind the strong relief pitching of Hans Hansen.

If Harvard-Westlake were to lose, the scenario is pretty simple. Since Rancho Bernardo of San Diego has suffered a fifth loss already in the CIF San Diego Open Division, the No. 1 team should the Wolverines falter would be CIF Central Coast Section D1 champ St. Francis of Mountain View, which is done and in the clubhouse at 29-4.

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 Wednesday, May 29; previous rank in parentheses; could be a few scores from early this week still unaccounted for):

DIVISION I
1. (2) Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood) 27-4
2. (3) St. Francis (Mountain View) 29-4
3. (8) Clovis North (Fresno) 27-6
4. (10) Elk Grove 27-5
5. (1) Granada (Livermore) 24-2
6. (4) Rancho Bernardo (San Diego) 28-5
7. (5) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 24-3
8. (15) Marina (Huntington Beach) 21-8
9. (6) Serra (San Mateo) 27-7
10. (NR) Fountain Valley 24-5
11. (13) Bellarmine (San Jose) 25-7
12. (NR) De La Salle (Concord) 19-7
13. (NR) St. Mary’s (Stockton) 21-12
14. (NR) Grossmont (La Mesa) 25-8
15. (7) El Toro (Lake Forest) 23-7
Dropped Out: Previous No. 9 Buchanan (Clovis); No. 11 Turlock; No. 12 Clovis; No. 14 Pleasant Grove (Elk Grove).
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: Two teams that have benefitted the most from the many upsets are Clovis North and Elk Grove. The Broncos have already won their first CIF Central Section Division I title, but the Thundering Herd still have to play St. Mary’s of Stockton this weekend for the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I title. That’s a three-game series, too, so it is possible that Elk Grove could finish 29-5 and that also might be enough to push the team past Clovis North for the final rankings. St. Mary’s, however, is no stranger to the section finals, having won three in a row and the games are played in Stockton.

DIVISION II
1. (1) Casa Grande (Petaluma) 26-2
2. (2) Campolindo (Moraga) 19-6-1
3. (3) Clayton Valley (Concord) 22-4
4. (4) Temecula Valley (Temecula) 23-5
5. (7) College Park (Pleasant Hill) 20-5-1
6. (8) Cypress 25-8
7. (10) Del Campo (Fair Oaks) 25-7
8. (5) Los Osos (Rancho Cucamonga) 23-6
9. (9) Redlands East Valley (Redlands) 23-5-1
10. (NR) Madison (San Diego) 24-8
Dropped Out: Previous No. 6 Benicia.
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: While Granada has fallen out of the mix to be No. 1 in its division, two teams from the CIF North Coast Section will meet on Saturday afternoon at Santa Rosa JC to decide the No. 1 ranking for this division. Casa Grande advanced on Wednesday afternoon by winning a slugfest 12-10 in 13 innings against College Park. Big-time catcher Francis Christy hit a homer for the Gauchos to win it. Campolindo, meanwhile, moved on by blanking Clayton Valley 2-0. The Cougars are the three-time defending champions of the division. The loser of the Casa Grande-Campolindo game will likely fall in behind the winner of the game on Friday at Dodger Stadium between Temecula Valley and Cypress for the CIFSS D2 crown.

DIVISION III
1. (1) Oaks Christian (Westlake Village) 28-3-1
2. (3) Serra (Gardena) 27-5
3. (7) Bonita (La Verne) 25-4-1
4. (8) Garden Grove 23-4
5. (NR) Diamond Bar 22-7
6. (5) Gahr (Cerritos) 22-6
7. (6) San Dieguito (Encinitas) 26-7
8. (NR) Acalanes (Lafayette) 19-7
9. (NR) Yuba City 21-11
10. (NR) Citrus Valley (Redlands) 23-5
Dropped Out: Previous No. 2 Whitney (Rocklin); No. 4 Kaiser (Fontana); No. 9 Lincoln; No. 10 Serra (San Diego).
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: Again, it’s too bad Oaks Christian and Serra aren’t in the same division but they’re not and Oaks Christian has been the higher-ranked team going by consensus of local writers and disregarding what any national “expert” has to say. Oaks Christian won on Tuesday and will play El Rancho of Pico Rivera (20-10) on Saturday in the CIFSS D4 final at UC Riverside. Serra won on Tuesday and meets Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach (24-11) in the CIFSS D3 final Friday at Dodger Stadium. In the NCS D3 semis on Wednesday, Acalanes pitcher John York fired a perfect game to lead the Dons past Sonoma Valley of Sonoma 1-0. Yuba City’s Chandler Eden also had a great pitching game in the Honkers’ 2-0 win on Monday over Colfax that gave them the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D3 crown. Eden tossed a no-hitter and struck out 12 to beat a team that had earlier in the playoffs eliminated previous No. 2 Whitney of Rocklin with not one but two wins.

DIVISION IV
1. (1) Pacific Grove 31-0
2. (4) Capital Christian (Sacramento) 25-5-1
3. (2) La Jolla Country Day (La Jolla) 24-7
4. (6) Oak Hills (Hesperia) 25-7
5. (NR) St. Mary’s (Berkeley) 17-5
6. (5) Central Catholic (Modesto) 24-7
7. (8) Menlo School (Atherton) 22-8
8. (NR) Palma (Salinas) 22-7
9. (7) Ontario Christian 24-6
10. (NR) Selma 20-10-2
Dropped Out: Previous No. 3 Kerman; No. 9 Linden; No. 10 Templeton.
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: As reported on extensively on Saturday night, Pacific Grove set a NorCal record by finishing 31-0 in winning the CCS D3 crown. The Breakers also iced the top ranking in the state for this division. We left La Jolla Country Day at No. 3 because both of its losses in the San Diego Section playoffs were to much larger schools. Capital Christian, meanwhile, won the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D5 title with a 3-1 triumph on Monday against Escalon. It seems like a lock for No. 2 in the division behind Pacific Grove. In Saturday’s CIFSS D5 championship, it will be Oak Hills taking on Citrus Valley of Redlands. Oaks Hills won on Wednesday 5-4 over Ontario Christian. You don’t see Citrus Hills in our D4 state rankings because that school is far too large in enrollment to be considered D4. We have put that team instead at No. 10 in D3.

DIVISION V
1. (1) Desert Christian Academy (Bermuda Dunes) 28-2
2. (2) Bradshaw Christian (Sacramento) 24-6
3. (8) Capistrano Valley Christian (SJ Capistrano) 24-8
4. (4) Mariposa County (Mariposa) 22-3
5. (6) Head-Royce (Oakland) 21-5
6. (7) Maxwell 23-6
7. (NR) Firebaugh 24-8
8. (3) Caruthers 24-4-1
9. (5) Webb (Claremont) 20-5
10. (9) Hamilton (Hamilton City) 22-6
Dropped Out: Previous No. 10 High Tech (San Diego).
Bubble Teams: See list on new baseball message board. CLICK HERE.
Notes & Highlights: Desert Christian Academy, which has been No. 1 in this division since we began doing this year’s divisional rankings, will try to cap off its season with a CIFSS Division VI title on Saturday with a game against Capistrano Valley Christian. If DCA were to lose, CVC will not have a strong enough case to be in front of Bradshaw Christian in the final rankings. Bradshaw Christian, which has a win over D1 ranked Elk Grove on its resume, won its section title with a 10-2 triumph against No. 4 Mariposa County.

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