Players from JSerra are shown just after the final out was recorded in their CIF Southern Section D1 title game win over Santa Margarita. Photo: Fernando M. Donado / For OC Sports Zone.
Repeating as CIF Southern Section Division I champions is the difference as JSerra of San Juan Capistrano lands its first-ever State Team of the Year selection in baseball and is the first winner from Orange County since 2009. Its high number of losses and opting out of the CIF SoCal D1 playoffs is overcome as the CIFSS D1 bracket continues to get tougher and tougher and tougher with competitive equity placements.
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Showing nine losses on a final record usually can’t be overcome in final No. 1 in the state baseball comparisons. But it does for the 2023 season in California for an accomplishment by the JSerra of San Juan Capistrano team that was too much for any others to overcome and that’s winning a second straight CIF Southern Section Division I title.
The Lions earned their repeat with a 1-0 win in eight innings in a tense title game played two weeks ago at Blair Field in Long Beach over Trinity League rival Santa Margarita of Rancho SM, which just this last Saturday won the CIF Southern California D1 regional title. JSerra’s players and coaches voted to opt out of those playoffs.
“You have to be playing your best at the end to get something like this and we have the past two years,” said JSerra head coach Brett Kay on Monday in a phone interview with Cal-Hi Sports. “In 2022, we gave up 1, 2, 1 and 1 runs in our (CIFSS) games and in 2023 it was 0, 1, 3, 0 and 0.”
JSerra’s repeat as a team from Orange County winning the top division in the CIFSS can be compared to Fountain Valley doing the same in 1994 and 1995. The Barons also were State Team of the Year for both of those seasons. The only other Orange County team to finish No. 1 in the state since Fountain Valley in 1995 has been Capistrano Valley of Mission Viejo in 2009.
Former longtime Mater Dei head coach Bob Ickes accepts CIFSS title plaque. He worked with JSerra head coach Brett Kay this season and last season, which was a dream of Kay’s since Kay played for Ickes at Mater Dei and remains “one of the most important mentors I’ve ever had in my life.” Photo: Fernando M. Donado / For OC Sports Zone.
Looking back through the list of No. 1 teams that goes back for more than 100 years doesn’t show a team on top in the state with eight losses or more since San Diego High in 1927. With so many of the top teams in Southern California playing schedules and in events in which they end up playing each other three, four, and even five times in a season, however, it may become more common for a top-ranked team in the state to have seven or eight losses showing on a final record.
It also was the second straight season in which the Lions bounced back from a poor start to win the CIFSS D1 championship. They even had a five-game losing streak and lost six of seven. Two of those early losses, though, were to Santa Margarita, which JSerra later defeated twice.
“There are always going to be expectations for us, but this year we started out No. 1 in the nation,” Kay said. “Getting the poor start and losing games like we did wasn’t the plan at all, but looking back I think it was more about roles being defined. Then our pitching and defense came together.”
Kay also mentioned an injury to returning all-state player Andrew Lamb. When Lamb was in the lineup, the Lions went 23-3. He also adjusted the batting order to move Trent Carraway into the No. 2 spot. He hit all season and in fact broke the school single season hit record that had been held by 2017 No. 1 MLB Draft pick Royce Lewis.
Repeating as the CIFSS D1 champions has become an even more difficult task given the competitive equity driven factors in the section that has placed teams into its D1 bracket. It’s generally considered the toughest playoff bracket in the nation to win and it’s only going to be more loaded next year when the section is expected to do its brackets at the end of the regular season based completely on what has happened during the season to that point. In other words, a team like Thousand Oaks from just two years ago that was 29-1 and was State Team of the Year after winning the CIFSS D2 title would no longer be in the second division. It would be in D1 along with everyone else.
Another factor that helped JSerra become an easier choice to be State Team of the Year is that the leading contender from Northern California, Valley Christian of San Jose, lost in the CIF NorCal D1 championship, 11-8, to De La Salle of Concord. If the Warriors had been able to hold on to that win, they would have finished 32-3.
JSerra’s opt out of this year’s regional playoffs (the team lost in the 2022 SoCal D1 final to Huntington Beach) wasn’t so much based on what happened then, but more about how it all ended with the 1-0 win over league rival Santa Margarita.
“It was most difficult for me because I just wanted to keep coaching the seniors,” Kay said. “Twenty nine of the 31 players wanted it (the season) to just be done. It was our fifth game with Santa Margarita and it broke the tie. They were like ‘We’re good.'”
Kay also reiterated that the team would not have opted out if there was a CIF state championship and not just a regional title that had been on the line.
“The hard part is that the end of the season is not aligned in the state,” he added. “It seems like that could be fixed, though, like it is for basketball and football.”
When Kay was told of a dream scenario that Cal-Hi Sports would love to see — for the CIF school year to end with state championships on a Wednesday and Thursday in baseball and softball followed by the state track meet on Friday and Saturday all at the same place at Buchanan High in Clovis — he was on board.
“We go to Buchanan every winter to scrimmage with them and their stadium would be perfect,” he said.
Until anything develops further on the CIF front, though, State Team of the Year honors will have to do.
CAL-HI SPORTS ALL-TIME
STATE BASEBALL TEAMS OF THE YEAR
(All teams listed prior to 1980 based on research by our founder,
the late Nelson Tennis)
Anthony Martinez was the starting catcher for De La Salle’s 2022 State Team of the Year. He is now at UC Irvine. Photo: Mark Tennis / Cal-Hi Sports.
2023 – San Juan Capistrano JSerra (24-9)
2022 – Concord De La Salle (27-6)
2021 – Thousand Oaks (29-1)
2020 – No Selection (Pandemic)
2019 – Concord De La Salle (29-1)
2018 – San Jose Valley Christian (29-3-1)
2017 – Chula Vista Eastlake (32-4)
2016 – Clovis Buchanan (30-1)
2015 – Pleasant Hill College Park (26-4)
2014 – Clovis (33-5)
2013 – North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake (28-4)
2012 – Vista (31-4)
2011 – Clovis Buchanan (30-2)
2010 – San Jose Archbishop Mitty (31-3)
2009 – Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley (26-6)
2008 – Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (27-4)
2007 – Long Beach Wilson (31-3)
2006 – San Jose Bellarmine (34-4)
2005 – Woodland Hills El Camino Real (28-4)
2004 – Chatsworth (35-0)
2003 – Carlsbad La Costa Canyon (32-1)
2002 – La Puente Bishop Amat (28-2)
2001 – La Puente Bishop Amat (27-2)
2000 – San Diego Rancho Bernardo (30-3)
1999 – Riverside Arlington (29-2)
1998 – Clovis (33-2)
1997 – Clovis (32-2) (plus one win by default)
1996 – Granada Hills Kennedy (31-3)
1995 – Fountain Valley (26-3-1)
1994 – Fountain Valley (27-3-1)
1993 – Fresno Bullard (26-3-1)
1992 – San Diego Mira Mesa (26-5)
1991 – Ontario (26-0)
1990 – Cupertino Monta Vista (27-3)
1989 – Fresno Bullard (28-2)
1988 – Fresno Bullard (29-1)
1987 – Lakewood (25-7)
1986 – Santee Santana (26-2)
1985 – Oxnard Rio Mesa (27-3)
1984 – Rancho Cordova (33-5-1)
1983 – El Cerrito (27-1)
1982 – San Diego Mt. Carmel (24-2)
1981 – Westminster (23-4)
1980 – Fresno Bullard (29-2)
1979 – Visalia Mt. Whitney (20-3)
1978 – Larkspur Redwood (30-5)
1977 – West Covina Edgewood (29-1)
1976 – Lakewood (22-4-1)
1975 – Torrance Bishop Montgomery (27-3)
1974 – Torrance North (26-6-1)
1973 – El Segundo (30-5)
1972 – Venice (19-3)
1971 – El Segundo (33-2)
1970 – Lompoc (27-1)
1969 – Sacramento Grant (16-1)
1968 – Fresno Hoover (27-3)
1967 – Long Beach Millikan (20-4)
1966 – El Segundo (24-4-1)
1965 – San Diego Crawford (22-4)
1964 – Lynwood (23-2)
1963 – Long Beach Poly (21-4)
1962 – Sacramento Bishop Armstrong (22-2)
1961 – S.F. Sacred Heart (32-2-1)
1960 – Fresno Roosevelt (20-2)
1959 – S.F. St. Ignatius (28-3)
1958 – Fresno (25-1)
1957 – Fresno (22-2)
1956 – Ontario Chaffey (21-5)
1955 – South Gate (17-2)
1954 – L.A. Loyola (22-5)
1953 – Compton (23-2)
1952 – S.F. Sacred Heart (29-5)
1951 – Sacramento McClatchy (22-0-1)
1950 – Long Beach Wilson (24-3)
1949 – San Diego (29-3)
1948 – San Diego (26-3)
1947 – S.F. Mission (12-1)*
1946 – San Diego (24-7)
1945 – S.F. Mission (10-0, League)
1944 – S.F. Mission (9-0, League)
1943 – L.A. Fremont (13-1)
1942 – San Diego Hoover (13-0 vs. prep teams)
1941 – S.F. Galileo (12-1)*
1940 – S.F. Mission (11-1)*
1939 – San Diego (20-5)
1938 – Glendale (4-0, Playoffs)
1937 – S.F. Commerce (12-2, League)
1936 – Long Beach Poly (23-2)
1935 – Sacramento (20-1)
1934 – S.F. Mission (7-0, League)
1933 – Fresno Roosevelt (20 -2)
1932 – San Diego (11-4)
1931 – S.F. Mission (8-0, League)
1930 – San Diego (19-3)
1929 – San Diego (31-5)
1928 – San Diego (22-8-1)
1927 – Fullerton (29-5-1)
1926 – Alameda (21-1)
1925 – Los Angeles (6-0, League)
1924 – S.F. Sacred Heart (6-0)*
1923 – San Diego (15-4)
1922 – S.F. Mission (6-1)*
1921 – San Diego (18-5-2)
1920 – San Diego (13-1)
1919 – Oakland Technical (8-0)*
1918 – San Diego (12-6)
1917 – San Diego (12-1)
1916 – S.F. Poly (7-0, League)
1915 – S.F. Sacred Heart (5-0)*
1914 – S.F. Lowell (6-0)*
1913 – Long Beach Poly (19-3-1)
1912 – Long Beach Poly (17-5)
1911 – S.F. Sacred Heart (5-0)*
1910 – S.F. Sacred Heart (8-0)*
1909 – Alameda (5-0)*
1908 – Palo Alto (4-0)*
1907 – Alameda (5-1)*
1906 – S.F. Lick (1-0 League)**
1905 – S.F. Lick (9-1-1)*
1904 – Palo Alto
1903 – Berkeley
1902 – S.F. Lowell
1901 – Berkeley
1900 – S.F. Cogswell
1899 – Palo Alto (5-0)
*Record for league and playoff games only.
** Playoffs and remainder of league schedule were cancelled due to earthquake.
Lick’s 1906 team was regarded as being better than its 1905 team.
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
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