Sean Watkins from Serra of San Mateo and Zoe Conley from Salesian of Richmond are from teams that moved up in this week’s rankings. Photos: Mark Tennis & Student Sports.
Teams moving up in baseball this week include Clayton Valley, College Park, Serra and Leigh while in softball it’s Valley Christian, Carondelet and Salesian. We produce these rankings in support of the Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area TV show, which airs live on KUSI Channel 20 in San Francisco on Sunday nights.
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Baseball: Three new teams
For the second straight week, the region’s top-ranked team, St. Francis of Mountain View, won a matchup against a No. 2 team.
This time, the Lancers blanked Bellarmine Prep 2-0 on a no-hitter by Tyler Deason, which followed up their win from the previous week over Clayton Valley in the title game of their own tourney.
Watch highlights of the Bay Area’s best teams every Sunday at 6 p.m. on KOFY, Channel 20, San Francisco with replays during the week on Comcast SportsNet. To order DVDs of a show, CLICK HERE.
Clayton Valley flipped back in front of the Bells in this week’s rankings and faces No. 7 College Park in a monster two-game series on Tuesday and Thursday.
The other highlight of this week’s rankings is the addition of three new teams – Leigh of San Jose, Newark Memorial of Newark and Tamalpais of Mill Valley.
Leigh just swept a pair from Willow Glen and is tied for first in the Mt. Hamilton League with Leland but with a better overall record. Newark Memorial has emerged from the Mission Valley Athletic League and has a two-game lead heading into this week, while Tam has been knocking on the door from the Marin County Athletic League all season.
Here is this week’s Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area Top 20 (compiled by Mark Tennis; after games of Saturday, May 3; previous ranking in parentheses):
1. (1) St. Francis (Mountain View) 21-3
2. (3) Clayton Valley (Concord) 21-1
3. (2) Bellarmine Prep (San Jose) 20-5
4. (5) Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 20-5
5. (8) Maria Carrillo (Santa Rosa) 20-2
6. (4) California (San Ramon) 16-4
7. (9) College Park (Pleasant Hill) 18-3
8. (7) Valley Christian (San Jose) 18-7
9. (6) Campolindo (Moraga) 17-4
10. (10) San Ramon Valley (Danville) 15-5
11. (18) Granada (Livermore) 14-6
12. (20) Wilcox (Santa Clara) 19-6
13. (11) Los Gatos 22-5
14. (13) De La Salle (Concord) 14-6*
15. (NR) Leigh (San Jose) 18-5-1
16. (19) Serra (San Mateo) 14-10
17. (12) Amador Valley (Pleasanton) 13-7
18. (NR) Newark Memorial (Newark) 15-5
19. (NR) Tamalpais (Mill Valley) 16-5
20. (17) Pacific Grove 17-3
Dropped Out:
Previous No. 14 Livermore; No. 15 Casa Grande (Petaluma); No. 16 Northgate (Walnut Creek);
Teams On The Bubble:
Casa Grande (Petaluma) 15-7, Deer Valley (Antioch) 11-7, Drake (San Anselmo) 16-6, Leland (San Jose) 17-8, Livermore 10-9, Marin Catholic (Kentfield) 15-6, Monterey 17-8, Northgate (Walnut Creek) 15-7, Pinole Valley (Pinole) 16-6-1, San Benito (Hollister) 17-6, San Leandro 14-6, St. Ignatius (San Francisco) 12-12.
Softball: Logan drops a spot despite strong week
(Writeup by Harold Abend)
The idea that rankings are fluid and can change from one day to another is evidenced in this week’s Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area Top 20 softball rankings.
The result is that in the top 10 there is a slight shakeup after the top three teams that’s not meant as a slight to James Logan of Union City, but after the Bay Area rankings came out early last week, a decision was made to jump Valley Christian of San Jose over Logan in the state rankings released a couple of days later. Because of that, we also have made the flip here for this week as well.
Watch highlights of the Bay Area’s best teams every Sunday at 6 p.m. on KOFY, Channel 20, San Francisco with replays during the week on Comcast SportsNet. To order DVDs of a show, CLICK HERE.
For its part, Logan did nothing to warrant a drop. It was the Valley Christian win over Archbishop Mitty that carried the weight after further consideration.
Logan actually had a banner week.
The rained out game with Newark Memorial went to Logan in a 4-2 road victory that opened the week. Veteran head coach Teri Johnson and her girls then went to Hayward and took an 8-2 decision from Moreau Catholic. They closed out the week in strong fashion with a Mission Valley Athletic League 16-7 pounding of visiting Newark Memorial. The second Newark victory was win No. 575 in Johnson’s career that began at Logan in 1986.
The other change that was made in the state rankings was bringing in Leland of San Jose and dropping Granada of Livermore behind the Chargers and to the state bubble.
Granada didn’t complicate the decision in this week’s Bay Area rankings because the Matadors went on to lose to San Ramon Valley before rebounding with a win over Foothill. That makes Granada 2-1 versus Foothill this season and although the 2-0 road loss to San Ramon Valley comes after they had beaten them 3-1 earlier in the season, it still leaves them at 6-4 in the East Bay Athletic League and tied with Foothill for second place.
Top-ranked Amador Valley is 10-0 in league, but several of the games have been close. It’s just that the rest of the teams in the EBAL have been taking turns beating each other.
The West Catholic Athletic League may be known as wild-and-wacky, and it was again this week other than Mitty, but it doesn’t get any wilder or wackier than in the EBAL this season.
Here is this week’s Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area Top 20 for softball (compiled by Harold Abend & Mark Tennis; previous ranking in parentheses; after games of Saturday, May 3):
1. (1) Amador Valley (Pleasanton) 20-0
2. (2) Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 23-1
3. (3) Alhambra (Martinez) 17-2
4. (5) Valley Christian (San Jose) 18-4
5. (4) James Logan (Union City) 18-2
6. (7) Leland (San Jose) 18-3
7. (6) Granada (Livermore) 15-5
8. (8) Pioneer (San Jose) 18-4
9. (9) Carlmont (Belmont) 20-3
10. (10) San Benito (Hollister) 17-2-1
11. (19) Carondelet (Concord) 9-7
12. (14) Foothill (Pleasanton) 12-8
13. (13) Livermore 10-10
14. (20) Salesian (Richmond) 12-1
15. (12) St. Patrick-St. Vincent (Vallejo) 20-3
16. (15) San Ramon Valley (Danville) 13-7
17. (17) Newark Memorial (Newark) 15-5
18. (18) Heritage (Brentwood) 14-4
19. (11) Notre Dame (Salinas) 20-3
20. (16) Presentation (San Jose) 17-6
Dropped Out:
None.
Teams On the Bubble:
Arroyo (San Lorenzo) 13-6; California (San Ramon) 6-13; Castro Valley 11-5; Los Altos 16-7; Maria Carrillo (Santa Rosa) 15-5; Marin Catholic (Kentfield) 13-3; Monte Vista (Danville) 9-10; Notre Dame (Belmont) 14-9; Petaluma 16-6; Rancho Cotate (Rohnert Park) 16-3-1; Redwood (Larkspur) 13-5; San Leandro 12-6; Santa Rosa 13-4; Soquel 15-8.
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
Harold Abend is the associate editor of CalHiSports.com and the vice president of the California Prep Sportswriters Association. He can be reached at marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @HaroldAbend
