It was time to get crazy after the 2026 St. John Bosco baseball team won its second straight CIF Southern Section D1 championship. Photo: sjboscobaseball / Instagram.com.
No, this isn’t a repost of last season. The Bellflower school has indeed repeated as the No. 1 team in the state for the second straight season despite losing in last week’s CIF SoCal D1 playoffs. The Braves’ accomplishment of repeating as CIF Southern Section D1 champions was too much, especially compared to what happened in the CIF NorCal D1 playoffs with state No. 3 De La Salle of Concord losing in the semifinals and a different CIFSS D1 team winning the CIF SoCal D1 title.
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The difficulty for a team ending a California high school baseball season ranked No. 1 for two straight seasons is shown by the infrequent times that it has happened in the last 75 years.
The last time that it happened was in the 2001 and 2002 seasons for Bishop Amat of La Puente. Fountain Valley did it in the 1990s and Fresno Bullard did it in the 1980s but it didn’t happen in the 1970s or 1960s and then there was Fresno High’s legendary back-to-back teams from 1957 and 1958 (especially 1958).
Legendary also may be a future description of the senior class of baseball players that is leaving St. John Bosco of Bellflower. The Braves are now joining those other rare repeat schools as they are being named as the 2026 State Team of the Year by Cal-Hi Sports after they did it for 2025.
There was no complicating factors at all for last year after Bosco followed up its championship run in the CIF Southern Section D1 playoffs with another title in the CIF SoCal D1 championships. The top bracket in the CIFSS, which is configured through competitive equity factors, is considered the best one in the nation, particularly since most states are still doing playoff placement of teams through enrollments.
Moises Razo, one of several standout seniors on the St. John Bosco squad, reacts after a big play during late-season game. Photo: sjboscobaseball / Instagram.com.
After the Braves became only the second team in 33 years to repeat as CIFSS D1 champions this year, however, they did not win another CIF SoCal D1 crown. They were ousted last week in the first round, 4-2, by Cathedral Catholic of San Diego. In the end, Cathedral Catholic fell in the final game of those playoffs last Saturday to a Huntington Beach team that went out in the CIFSS D1 playoffs before the quarterfinals by losing twice in pool play games to Harvard-Westlake and La Mirada. Huntington Beach was able to be placed in the CIF SoCal bracket due to other CIFSS teams, including finalist Norco and Harvard-Westlake, opting out of those playoffs. Cathedral Catholic, which will move up in the final state rankings for beating the Braves, also did not win its section title as the Dons lost twice to league rival Patrick Henry in the CIF San Diego Section Open Division playoffs. Huntington Beach also will be moving up in the final rankings for winning the regional title, but that’s not enough to be ahead of a back-to-back CIFSS D1 champion.
De La Salle of Concord was another team that entered last week with a chance to perhaps pass Bosco for the final No. 1 state ranking if it could have won the CIF NorCal D1 title. The Spartans only had one loss on the season and were looking to win their second straight NorCal D1 title and their fifth in six seasons. Unfortunately for them, that didn’t happen. They lost in the semifinals last Thursday, 3-0, to eventual champion Valley Christian of San Jose, which for the overall season had nine losses and so it can’t then be obviously moved up too high for the final rankings.
“I told them, ‘Walk away with your head high,’” head coach Andy Rojo said to the Long Beach Press-Telegram after the final game loss to Cathedral Catholic. “It doesn’t take away from the last two years of back-to-back Trinity League championships and back-to-back CIF Southern Section championships, which is only the second time it’s been done since 1993.”
Before winning its second straight CIFSS D1 title, Bosco also won its second straight title in the Trinity League with a 14-1 record, including a 2-1 series win over runner-up Orange Lutheran. The Lancers, who lost in the CIFSS D1 playoffs to Norco and it would seem also declined an invitation for last week’s regionals, won the titles this year at the National High School Invitational held in Cary, N.C., and were the Boras Classic state champions. One of Bosco’s six losses this year came to the Norco team in the Boras Classic that it would later beat in the CIFSS D1 final. The Braves also were in the NHSI where they lost games to Casteel of Queen Creek, Ariz., and to Trinity of Louisville, Ky.
It’s winning the back-to-back crowns in the CIFSS D1 playoffs, however, that became the difference for this year’s final No. 1 ranking. It wasn’t an easy march through the field at all. Even the first game in the new pool play format for the first three games was a 2-1 win in 11 innings over Cypress. Another pool play win over Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth qualified the Braves for the quarterfinals, where they faced local rival La Mirada and won, 5-2. They next advanced to the championship game with a 3-1 win over Harvard-Westlake.
In the final, Bosco only scored single runs in the fifth and sixth innings but it was enough to beat Norco, 2-0, behind senior ace Julian Garcia. In one of the best pitching performances in a major section championship game in state history, Garcia retired the final 20 batters of the game and ended with a one-hitter and 14 strikeouts.
Garcia also was part of a pitching staff that had a team ERA of 1.20 for the entire season. It takes a team ERA of below 1.00 to gain entry onto the all-time state list, but no teams on that list played in the Trinity League or in the top division of the CIFSS playoffs.
Garcia’s comeback from Tommy John surgery that caused him to miss the entire 2025 season was just indicative of how much fight that the Braves’ senior class — also including Jaden Jackson, Jack Champlin, Noah Everly, Jhett Ohira, Moises Razo, James Clark and Miles Clark — showed in so many games over the past three years. In addition to the two CIFSS titles, those seniors also helped the school win the 2024 CIF SoCal D3 regional title.
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)
St. John Bosco’s Andy Rojo was State Coach of the Year after the 2025 season. Repeats for that honor have never been done for any sport in the nearly 50 years we’ve been doing Cal-Hi Sports. Photo: @SJBoscoBaseball / Twitter.com.
2026 – Bellflower St. John Bosco (27-6)
2025 – Bellflower St. John Bosco (30-4)
2024 – Corona (30-3)
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 – Studio City 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
