Ridgeview of Bakersfield players celebrate during win in Tuesday’s CIF SoCal D4 South playoffs vs Notre Dame of Riverside. At right, Jewely Davis, Stevie Knight and Makinze Massey show off home run balls for CIF NorCal D4 top seed East Nicolaus after a game earlier this season. Photos: kernhighnetwork / Instagram.com & Spartan Softball / Facebook.com.
Since there were first round CIF regional playoff games in baseball and softball that were halted or not played on Tuesday due to lighting and thunderstorms in Southern California, we had to do the first run-through of our state rankings by divisions in two parts. This is Part 2 and it’s for D1 softball, D2 baseball, D4 softball and D4 baseball.
FOR THE OTHER STATE DIVISION RANKINGS IN BASEBALL/SOFTBALL DONE AFTER FIRST ROUND OF REGIONAL PLAYOFFS, CLICK HERE.
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(Records through Wednesday, June 4 regional games)
*Season complete.
**Forfeits not included.
Note: All teams are ranked even if they opted out of the CIF regional playoffs. We also look for teams that aren’t in the CIF regional playoffs because they lost in section playoffs or played in a section championship and their section doesn’t allow its runner-up in some divisions to move on.
SOFTBALL DIVISION I
1. Norco 29-3*
2. Oak Ridge (El Dorado Hills) 25-3**
3. Del Oro (Loomis) 28-2
4. St. Francis (Mountain View) 28-3
5. El Modena (Orange) 22-9
6. Rosary (Fullerton) 26-3-1*
7. Tracy 28-3*
8. Willow Glen (San Jose) 28-2*
9. Mater Dei Catholic (Chula Vista) 25-7
10. Lutheran (Orange) 22-6*
11. Whitney (Rocklin) 24-9
12. Clovis North (Fresno) 22-6-2*
13. Temescal Canyon (Lake Elsinore) 21-6*
14. Etiwanda 23-4*
15. Bonita Vista (Chula Vista) 25-7
16. Poway 24-8
17. Ayala (Chino Hills) 22-4*
18. La Mirada 25-5*
19. Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks) 25-6*
20. Rocklin 22-7*
Notes: The only first-round SoCal regional game played in this division had to be pushed to Wednesday due to the freaky weather from Tuesday and when it happened Poway went back home with a big win on the road at Ayala. That set up a semifinal grouping of El Modena vs Poway and Mater Dei Catholic vs Bonita Vista. Poway was the third ranked San Diego Section team (lost to Bonita Vista in semifinals) and its win will help the other two come up for final rankings. In the north, top seeds Oak Ridge and Del Oro were still on track to play for the fourth time in Saturday’s final. The Trojans are playing a Whitney team that did get a win against them in league in the semifinals. Whitney won in extra innings on Tuesday vs CIF Central Section D1 champ Clovis North. Del Oro has St. Francis of Mountain View on Tuesday. Willow Glen lost to Del Oro on Tuesday after falling to St. Francis in the CCS Open final. The Rams ended 28-2 after getting to 28-0..
BASEBALL DIVISION II
1. West Ranch (Valencia) 23-9*
2. Yuba City 28-5
3. St. Francis (Mountain View) 21-10
4. Eastlake (Chula Vista) 21-10-1
5. Point Loma (San Diego) 21-12-1
6. Lodi 25-9
7. El Camino Real (Woodland Hills) 23-9*
8. Acalanes (Lafayette) 18-10-1
9. San Dimas 20-11
10. Rancho Bernardo (San Diego) 19-13
Bubble: Casa Grande (Petaluma) 20-9*, Chico 28-2*, Etiwanda 17-13-1*, Fountain Valley 18-15*, Glendora 23-11*, Hollister 21-9*, Oaks Christian (Westlake Village) 20-9*, Servite (Anaheim) 17-14*, St. Joseph (Santa Maria) 24-7*, Torrance 19-11*, West Park (Roseville) 24-8*.
Notes: This division is extra difficult since the CIF Southern Section D2 bracket was still pretty good, although a far cry from D1. West Ranch was the championship game and beat Mater Dei of Santa Ana in the final. The Monarchs from the Trinity League were placed in D1 South and therefore would be D1 for state rankings. The Wildcats and the rest of the CIFSS D2 teams are going to be D2 for the divisional state rankings and they proved to be tough to beat for the top ranking. They had already climbed to No. 25 in our TOP 35 overall rankings and no other teams from this group were that high. They opted out of playing in this week’s regionals. The SoCal D2 bracket already had a game pushed back to Wednesday due to graduation at one of the schools and in that game San Dimas topped second seed St. Joseph (Santa Maria). The Saints are playing Point Loma in one semifinal with the other one matching Rancho Bernardo (beat top seed Fountain Valley) and Eastlake. To be honest, we were hoping for a Yuba City vs Chico final in the north (both teams with great records) but Chico lost in the first round to Acalanes. Yuba City topped Hollister and moved on into a matchup against Lodi. St. Francis of the WCAL being in D2 could be the ticket to a title. The Lancers are playing Acalanes on Thursday.
SOFTBALL DIVISION IV
1. Woodlake 28-1
2. East Nicolaus (Nicolaus) 22-6
3. Pioneer Valley (Santa Maria) 20-12
4. University (Irvine) 17-10
5. Alhambra (Martinez) 17-10*
6. San Leandro 22-8
7. Aptos 18-8
8. Rolling Hills Prep (Arcadia) 21-6
9. Argonaut (Jackson) 24-6*
10. Northgate (Walnut Creek) 14-11
Bubble: Colusa 21-8*, Gridley 19-6*, Marquez (Huntington Park) 24-4*, Taft (Woodland Hills) 9-12*, University Prep (Redding) 17-12-2*, Westmont (Campbell) 16-14*, Woodside 16-12*.
Notes: Other than Pioneer Valley being runner-up in the next highest division in the CIF Central Section playoffs, we would rank Woodlake higher with just one loss on the season and would rank the Tigers No. 1 if they win the CIF SoCal D4 title. Those two could play on Saturday after both won on Tuesday. University and Rolling Hills Prep were the other two SoCal winners in this bracket in the first round. Opt outs are an issue for the north playoffs in this division. San Leandro, which had a win in the first round over University Prep, lost in the NCS championships to Alhambra (which opted out). Aptos won on Tuesday as well after losing in the CCS finals to Westmont of Campbell (opted out). East Nicolaus is the top seed, won on Tuesday vs Quincy and is playing Northgate on Thursday in the semis.
BASEBALL DIVISION IV
1. Woodland Christian 27-6
2. Santa Clara 28-3
3. West Valley (Cottonwood) 23-4
4. Carson 19-13*
5. Banning (Wilmington) 23-9
6. Ridgeview (Bakersfield) 22-11
7. Menlo School (Atherton) 22-8
8. Rancho Mirage 19-13
9. Estancia (Costa Mesa) 21-13
10. Ramona 23-8*
Bubble: Bear River (Lake of the Pines) 19-8-1*, Durham 20-9*, Clear Lake (Lakeport) 19-6, Las Lomas (Walnut Creek) 16-12-1*, Marshall (Pasadena) 20-7-1*, Mary Star (San Pedro) 17-13*, Oakland Tech (Oakland) 17-10*.
Notes: Those top three teams in the north all have great records and whichever one of them wins the title on Saturday would be a solid No. 1. Menlo School is the other team in the semifinals after it defeated Las Lomas on Tuesday. Santa Clara needed to overcome a 6-2 deficit to beat Oakland Tech in extra innings in the first round. The south is more complicated. Top seed Banning of Wilmington was the runner-up in the L.A. City Section D1 playoffs to Carson (which opted out). That’s why we have Carson in the same state rankings division and is higher ranked. Ridgeview of Bakersfield won in its Central Section division over Kingsburg, but for some reason was placed in D4 with the team it beat being placed higher in D3. Both Ridgeview and Banning won on Tuesday. The other two teams still alive going into Thursday in the south were Rancho Mirage and Estancia.
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
